Calculated
by DarkPaladin000
Summary: A rewrite of the books in which Arthur thinks before he does stuff, and how I thought was the most efficient way of toppling the Days and fulfilling the Will. Inspired by richard.fsea's Coup D'Etat, now rewritten.
1. Prologue

**A/N: So, this is inspired by and his 'A Comprehensive Guide To Taking Over the House' about a different Rightful Heir, and this is basically a rewrite of the books in which I assume the Rightful Heir has no qualms about becoming a Denizen and thinks his moves thoroughly, though I'm keeping the Rightful Heir as Arthur instead of inventing someone entirely new. As such, it will be much shorter as I'm omitting several parts and Garth Nix had to make the story fit seven books which I don't. The story starts with Arthur, Suzy, and the First Part of the Will in the Lower House as they are in an elevator in** _ **Mister Monday.**_

Arthur was breathing heavily, though not the kind that signaled an asthma attack. He had just ran and jumped much further than he had ever been able to, and was surprised that he hadn't collapsed.

The Will had, to Suzy's relief, ejected itself from her mouth and was now babbling about the next purpose it had to do and claiming the Hour Key.

"Wait," Arthur said. "Look, it's nice that you're telling me all of this, but the thing is that I've been doing a lot of reading in the Atlas, so I know what you're telling me."

Truth be told, once Arthur had figured out how to use the Atlas, he had spent quite a lot of time reading it, poring through its pages about the Days and the Keys. He had already armed himself with quite a bit of knowledge before even walking into the House, and though he felt a bit of trepidation, also felt excitement. The House fascinated him like nothing else, and here he was, inside of it.

"That will expedite things then," the Will boomed, still not using an indoor voice. "I suggest for now that we mobilize ourselves and look for allies within the Lower House."

"But what is your eventual plan?" Arthur asked.

"You will need to speak an incantation in order to wrest the Hour Key from Mister Monday, though how to go about doing so is, as some may say, 'still in the works'," the Will said.

"But," Arthur said, "the Hour Key is much more powerful that the Minute Key. And how are we supposed to deal with his soldiers, even if we do have some allies?"

"That is a risk that must be taken," the Will said. "I was unable to convince Monday to hand over the Hour Key as well, otherwise this would have been so much faster."

Arthur then shook his head, and the Will saw, for the first time, something gleaming in the boy's eyes. It spoke of mischief, as well as cunning, something that it had not noticed up till now.

"Rather than do that, which is a plan almost guaranteed to kill me since the Hour Key is more powerful, though I guess you don't care since you can just go ahead and choose someone else to be the next Heir, I have a better plan," Arthur said.

The Will croaked, but Arthur wasn't sure if it was disagreeing with him or wanted to hear more, so he went on. "If any one of the Seven Days had fulfilled the Will, then would there have been this sort of problem? I mean even if someone besides Monday decided to hand over the Key to someone before he did?"

"No," the Will said, "It wouldn't be a problem per se, but none of the faithless Trustees have fulfilled even a part of me."

Arthur smiled, like how a magician would before pulling out his main act. "In that case, think about it carefully. Getting the Hour Key is dangerous and near impossible, and while we still stay in the Lower House we have to be wary of Monday's minions. Rather than go through all of that, let's instead fulfill another part of the Will, and get another Key, with which we can easily force Monday to submit."

The Will croaked. "Easier Key? I'm afraid that getting another Key would indeed be difficult, much more so than the Hour Key. Not to mention it messes with the order. We should of course, go for the First Key first!"

"But you just said order doesn't matter," Arthur said. "In that case, the most logical thing to do right now would be go to the Border Sea."

Arthur spent around five minutes explaining how Duchess Wednesday had been betrayed by the other Days and wanted to give up her Key.

The Will began protesting. " I must say that we should desist from this course of action. The Trustees, despite their names, cannot and should not be trusted."

Arthur tapped the Atlas. "The Atlas says so, and the Atlas isn't wrong. Plus, I know where the Third Part of the Will is hidden. We could go there by the Improbable Stair right now, but the thing is that it is on a pirate island, and I think the Minute Key could protect me but we also have to carry all the Denizens imprisoned there, and the Improbable Stair can't do that."

"And what more does this plan of yours entail?" the Will asked while hopping about. Arthur wasn't sure if it was being agitated or happy, probably the former.

"We go to the Border Sea, and then rent a vessel with which we go into Wednesday's stomach and the worldlet in there, with a crew that's ready to fight pirates, so we'll probably need to enlist Wednesday's Dawn help. Then, we take the other part of the Will, use it take the Third Key, which I think will make dealing with the Hour Key easier," Arthur said.

"The Hour Key without the Minute Key is currently about as powerful as a Key brought from another Demesne into the Lower House, though it can't be used as frequently. True, this plan has a chance of succeeding, but I still must say that we should go for the Hour Key first," the Will said.

Arthur wagged his finger as if he was explaining to a impatient toddler that one plus one equals two, "Again, getting the Hour Key wouldn't be a problem if an incantation would simply help me claim it. But according to you, I'd have to say the incantation, which would fail if Monday's holding the Hour Key, then hold it close to me which would probably make it easier for it to kill me, and then hope for the best. That's not much of a plan for me, though it might make sense to you since you can keep trying it over and over by choosing other Heirs. So, I say we take this elevator to the Border Sea, and that's it."

There was a sort of firmness about his voice which told the Will that arguing with him was going to be difficult.

Arthur then looked at Suzy, who had been surprisingly quiet up till then.

"And I s'pose you all wants me to join in on this?" Suzy asked.

"Indeed," the Will said. "In exchange for your help, there may be rewards."

"May be doesn't seem so sure," Suzy said. She looked at Arthur and the Will warily, it was clear to Arthur that she didn't trust them, Not to mention that behind what seemed to be her sunny disposition, he felt something else. There was hurt in her eyes, though not at them but at something else.

Arthur stood up. "Think about it. If we win, you can have the future Ruler of the Border Sea in your favor, and if we're caught, you can just say that you were kidnapped and forced to do this all against your will."

"There's somethin' else I want," Suzy said. "All of us Piper's Children are immigrants, so to speak, and we don't really belong here."

"So that's what you want?" Arthur asked. "For all of you to go back to where you came from?"

Suzy shook here head. "I don't s'pose that's possible."

The Will interrupted. "Indeed. Even if all the Piper's Children did want to go back to the Secondary Realms, which I doubt, the undertaking would probably span several millennia to complete, and would violate the Original Law. Not to mention that most of them, due to the House's influence, have become near-Denizens, and their prolonged presence would most probably be inimical, especially for the few who have been promoted to high positions, which would have greatly accelerated this process."

Suzy shook her head. "I don't want to go back anyway. Not back to where I had been," Her eyes became even more distant as she spoke about his, which made Arthur sure it had something to do with her previous mortal existence.

"In that case, you could all come back to modern times," Arthur said. "We could set up something like an orphanage back in my time."

"Actually, what I wanted was for us Piper's Children to be treated better," Suzy said. "We keep gettin' washed between the ears, and few of us have high posts."

"So, you want sort of an affirmative action for Piper's Children?" Arthur asked, who was currently unaware of what 'washing between the ears' was. "That's fine."

The Will jumped agitatedly. "This discussion is fine, but we really need to get a move on if we intend to reach the Border Sea before being caught."

Suzy then reached up and pushed a button, but it just ended up being pushed out again instead of lighting up.

"Proper authority is needed to reach a place like the Border Sea," the Will said and hopped, and then pushed the button. It started to glow and the elevator began ascending.

"Can the elevators be stopped?" Arthur asked.

"They shut down a lot," Suzy said. "One time, I had been stuck in this one for six months."

Arthur was about to say that that was impossible since she would've died, but realized that eating and drinking were not necessary in the House so stopped himself.

"Well, I meant to say how far do we have to be so that we'll be out of Monday's jurisdiction? You know, so he can't send someone to get us?"

"Once we're at the bulwark between the Lower House and Border Sea," the Will said.

"Okay, tell me once we get there," Arthur said.

Arthur began flipping through the Atlas again, checking up on new information. He was also silently brainstorming. Not about the Border Sea, he had already planned that, but rather about other things related to the House.

You see, he had already found out about the Will and its… final purpose.

"Right now we should be safe," the Will said finally.

"Okay," Arthur said. "Now, Will, Monday's Dusk is with is right."

The Will croaked in surprise, which told Arthur that he was right. It was another one of those things he had read in the Atlas.

"I need a telephone," Arthur said while touching the Minute Key. A telephone materialized near him. He picked up the speaker and a voice said, "Operator here."

"I need to speak to Monday's Dusk, please," Arthurs said.

"Yeah," the Denizen on the other end said in a bored tone, "see, the problem with that mate is that Monday's Dusk is a high ranking officer, and considering the fact that you just said 'please' that probably means that you're a nobody, so I can't connect you like-"

Arthur grabbed the Minute Key and repeated his request, hoping that the Key would make him sound… importanter? No, that was wrong, but anyway he was hoping it would work over a distance.

Apparently it did, because next thing he knew he was connected to someone who was talking, except his voice echoed across the elevator room and carried the essence of the night somehow.

"Who is this?" Monday's Dusk asked.

"Who's there with you?" Arthur asked.

"What? Who is this?" Monday's Dusk repeated, clearly irritated.

"I think you know who I am," Arthur repeated. "I'm a mortal."

There was a pause.

"Is there anyone there who might overhear us?" Arthur asked.

"No, fortunately I am in my private office," Dusk said. "What is it that you want? My Master is looking for your head."

"And yet you freed the Will," Arthru said. "Yes, I know all about that, but to be quick, there is something that I want. I need to know if you have a way of communicating or sending a message to Wednesday's Dawn."

There was a pause. "I know of no such way. Telephones do not work in the Border Sea. But there was something…"

There was the sound of something being forced into a hole too small for it, and Arthur watched in amazement as a something was forced out of the earpiece and fell out. It looked like a small firecracker.

"That was something that Wednesday's Noon gave me during my stint in the Great Maze," Dusk said. "The higher-ranking officials of the Maze used to use them as distress signals back when telephones were not in the fashion of the House. They should emit an aura visible to Denizens who were trained to see them. If I am not mistaken, Wednesday's Dawn did her service several hundred years before mine, so she should also have been trained for that. It is the best I can-"

His voice was suddenly cut off.

"We're far too high up," the Will said. "Telephones don't work in the Border Sea."

"Where exactly in the Border Sea are we headed?" Arthur asked.

"Near Port Wednesday," the Will answered.

 **A/N: Interestingly, though Suzy had mentioned at the beginning of Mister Monday, she never made any motion to want to go back. Sure, her family was gone and they couldn't find the records, but you would've thought that Arthur could have just asked the Atlas for their location, not to mention in Sir Thursday Arthur says that Piper's Children don't want to go back.**

 **Also, the Atlas tends to be a real deus ex machina, which is probably why Garth Nix chose to work in weaknesses and had Arthur give it up occasionally.**


	2. Duchess Wednesday I

**A/N: So, thanks Otter Seastar for that review.**

Suzy and Arthur strolled down Port Wednesday with the Will tucked underneath Arthur's shirt collar.

When the elevator had opened they had expected some strike or a force of sergeants waiting for them.

On the contrary, no one seemed to really care about them. Port Wednesday was a huge hub of activity.

Merchants were shouting and announcing their stuff for sale. There were more ships than Arthur could count in docked near the shore, in all degrees of make and shape.

Denizens were flocking from shop to shop carrying coins which were as big as bottle caps.

Out of the stuff being sold, which came from planets whose names Arthur couldn't even understand, the most numerous were bags of tea and teapots and teacups of all shapes and sizes. Also, there were biscuits of every variety, and their smell wafted out to Arthur and made his stomach rumble. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten something.

Arthur had to stop Suzy from 'borrowing' some of the stuff that was for sale, though he had to admit that, given the Denizen's huge hype for tea, having a few sachets handy didn't sound like a bad idea. But, he didn't want to go around stealing stuff and didn't have any of the coins used in the Border Sea.

They went closer to the docks to look for a ship. Arthur wanted to avoid any of the big ones since he wanted to maintain a low profile, so he wandered to the smaller boats.

He found an old rowboat which was manned by a single denizen. The guy had lost a few teeth, but Arthur had the impression that it was probably on purpose rather an accident. He was wearing an old fishing hat and what looked like a hiker's jacket.

Arthur talked to him for a few minutes and managed to talk him into renting his boat, but then the point regarding money inevitably came up.

Arthur had been planning on doing something with his Key, maybe turning something he didn't immediately need into gold, but didn't need to as Suzy handed the Denizen several sachets of tea with a guilty look at Arthur which really didn't look genuinely guilty at all.

Their guide took them where Arthur had wanted- any small island off the coast. He spotted one with nothing on it. It appeared to be a jagged rock protruding out of the sea.

They got off the boat and their guide went on his way.

Arthur made a mental note that he was going to repay those merchants back once he got the Third Key.

The Will leapt out from under Arthur's collar. Apparently it had been silent for far too long and just had to start yapping, snowballing Arthur with more information than he could use on tea, trade, and marine biology.

"Don'cha think this place is a bit open?" Suzy asked.

"Yes," Arthur said. "So no one can sneak up on us here. And if he have to get away, we can always use the Improbable Stair."

Arthur then took out the firecracker like device that Monday's Dusk had given him, and pointed it at the sky.

Arthur was about to ask, but Suzy handed him a matchstick before he could get the words out. _Maybe she isn't so bad as an associate,_ Arthur thought.

He lit the matchstick, which surprisingly produced a flame a foot tall. He dropped it and Suzy scowled and gave him a new one.

Arthur was expecting it this time, but the huge flame was unnerving nonetheless. He was sure it was just his mind messing with him, but he could almost see a face in those flames.

The firework wasn't something very spectacular, it only made a tiny flare and a small _pop_ before disappearing.

"So... what now?" Suzy asked.

"We wait, I guess," Arthur said. Of course, he immediately began planning further. Up till then, Arthur had been concerned about the bigger picture, but now he had to think about what was the best way to get the Third Key without causing a lot of harm.

The hours passed. The Will and Suzy were entertaining themselves by playing with some cards, but the Will couldn't exactly hold them properly and kept dropping them, so Suzy kept seeing the Will's cards.

Arthur began drifting off. It had been quite some time and he was wondering about whether or not Wednesday's Dawn would even bother showing up or not and what he should do in that case.

Then, before his eyes could note it, a figure jumped out of the sea right towards him. It somehow managed to miraculously cross the distance from the shore to him in a single leap.

Arthur felt the Minute Key move and felt it push him back. The thing went right by his nose, and he saw that it looked like a shark with gilded skin.

Once it landed, it turned into a Denizen, much taller than average, with a whip and wearing what looked like sharkskin, and somehow exuding the essence of the early morning.

Wednesday's Dawn, Arthur thought. Before he could think past that, she moved her whip and thrust it at Suzy.

It went way too fast for Arthur to normally see it, but he guessed the Key sort of slowed it down in his head so he sort of felt its pathway.

It was going to behead Suzy.

Thankfully, the Will reacted and jumped on Wednesday's Dawn, knocking her over so that the whip cracked just two inches over Suzy's head.

Wednesday's Dawn tried to get up, but the Will was sitting on her and she couldn't, as if there was a ten-tonne weight on her instead of a small frog.

"Get off me, Nithling," Wednesday's Dawn shrieked.

"That's not a Nithling," Arthur said. "That's the First Part of the Will, and I am the Rightful Heir."

Wednesday's Dawn had a momentary look of surprise before snorting and saying, "Lies!"

Arthur pulled out his Key, pointed it at her, and said, "May she feel my authority."

Nothing happened that Arthur could see, but Wednesday's Dawn looked at the Minute Key and then closer at the Will, close enough to see the type that it was made up of.

"I also have the Atlas," Arthur said and waved it in front of her eyes like some sort of I.D. card.

"So, it's true?" Wednesday's Dawn asked.

The WIll hopped off her and she got up and murmured some sort of apology (Arthur was sure that even Suzy could do better) as she was sure that she were pirates.

Arthur started filling in Wednesday's Dawn on why they had come.

"But why the Border Sea first though?" She asked. "Shouldn't the Lower House and the Far Reaches come first?"

Arthur was slightly exasperated at having to explain this so many times. He guessed it had to do with Denizen's tendency of doing things with tunnel-vision, they seemed to believe there was always one correct way of doing things. Even though this was going to help her mistress to get back to normal sooner, she still thought that doing it in order was somehow more important.

Not to mention, Arthur thought, it was kind of weird. Sort of like giving a final exam before the midterm.

"It is much easier and less dangerous to get the THird Key rather than the First One," Arthur said.

Arthur then filled Wednesday's Dawn in on how the Deluge happened. Her face turned redder with every word. She said something in another language which Arthur guessed was not a polite term and seemed to want to go and rip the Morrow Day's heads off.

That meant that she would be more open to helping their cause.

"This is what I want," Arthur said. He then revealed the location of the Third Part of the Will.

Wednesday's Dawn gulped, for the first time looking visibly frightened. "So the only way in is to..."

"Either we get swallowed which I guess is dangerous," Arthur said, "or we get Feverfew and take the puzzle from him. I'm up for the latter option."

"Even I can't tackle Feverfew," Wednesday's Dawn said bitterly. "He appears to have access to some high-grade sorcery, probably supplied by some of the other Morrow Days."

"Nothing my Key can't take," Arthur assured her. "Even though I only have the Minute Key, it should be more than enough to take him. Plus, we have the Will, you, and if Duchess Wednesday gives permission, a large group of ships. That's really what I'd like you to do. Get Duchess Wednesday to agree to arranging an army, and then we assemble any sorcerers or soldiers we have, and take Feverfew down. We then travel into the world let, find Part Three of the Will and Duchess Wednesday signs her Key over. I then cure Wednesday of her hunger."

"Wednesday's eyes narrowed. "Do you promise the last part?"

"Yes," Arthur said, and he meant it.

"Then be sure to remember this. I do not take orders form you, Arthur Penhaligon," she said and dived into the sea, turning into a shark just before she hit the water.

"That was stressful," Suzy said, who had spent the entire time staring warily at Wednesday's Dawn.

"I would say more of doubtful," the Will said. "I doubt we can trust her. The Morrow Days cannot be believed, that was what caused this mess in the first place. She could very well be bringing Duchess Wednesday here to swallow us."

Arthur shook his head. "The Atlas says Duchess Wednesday wants to give up the Key as well."

"Well anyways," Suzy said. "Can we at least go somewhere else? My 'eads about to explode. There's nothin' to do 'ere on this rock."

"Then how will Wednesday's Dawn find us?" Arthur asked. "And what if we're spotted by one of Feverfew's servants?"

Arthur truly would have like to move somewhere else, but he didn't want to risk it. The only thing left to do was wait...

 **A/N: An idea just struck me. Arthur could have also gone to get the Fourth Key, provided that Sir Thursday wasn't holding it I think he'd be able to get it even quicker, but then he'd run the risk of fighting Sir Thursday, probably without the Marshall's help if they weren't there.**

 **Also, on another note, Wednesday's Dawn is abbreviated WD and Duchess Wednesday is DW. Coincidence? I think not!**


	3. Duchess Wednesday II

**A/N: First of all, I'd like to apologize for the huge length of time since I've updated anything, let alone this fanfic. And, thank you to my reviewers, Shadeslayers of Chosen Ones and Dun dun. Otter Seastar, to answer your questions, I don't know about the order thing. First of all, there's the point that it makes sense to go counting from Monday to Sunday if you start on Monday, and Garth Nix had a series to sell and probably had a contract for seven books. Plus, any of the Days could have gone and killed Arthur when he had first gotten the Minute Key, because he had to wait a full week to recover before he went into the House. Plenty of time for any of the Days to come down and take him out while he was recovering from his asthma attack. But Tuesday probably didn't care, Wednesday was a whale, Thursday wouldn't until ordered to, Friday was probably experiencing, Saturday probably wanted some parts to be fulfilled, and Sunday of course couldn't care. So probably none of them would have gone out of order anyway.**

 **But, I thought, after a while that while Monday was taken down first, it would have been safer for Arthur to use the Minute Key to take down Feverfew and get the Third Key, rather than face Monday and almost get killed (he just barely survived.)**

 **As for whether Wednesday's Dawn knew, I'm guessing she didn't since she probably wasn't at the meeting since she wasn't eaten, and while I don't remember much of** _ **Duchess Wednesday,**_ **I remember her stating that Lord Sunday's mind dwelled on things mortals couldn't understand. That sounded like she was praising him, and I doubted she would have done so if he had betrayed Wednesday, since I believe she was pretty loyal. Or at least she's been loyal in all of the fanfics I've read, I don't really remember well how Garth Nix portrayed her.**

 **And after this very long author's note, onto the actual story.**

Arthur had, for all the thought he had given to his plan, overlooked one major detail: boredom.

For the next, it appeared to be several days; he had been sitting on the island twiddling his thumbs waiting for _something_ to happen. He was hungry, and apparently Suzy had chosen to 'borrow' a whole lot more things that a few bags of tea. Arthur sighed, but in the end he did take some bites off a biscuit guiltily.

As he was lazily looking out at the sea and wondering if a Nintendo 3DS would work in the House and how he'd go about charging it if its battery went out, he spotted something on the horizon. He rubbed his eyes.

"It's a ship!" Arthur shouted. "Get ready!" Arthur got up and gripped the Minute Key, if it was an enemy, the had to get on the Improbable Stair as quickly as possible, or use the Key's power to try and sink the enemy's ship.

As it got closer, a flash of gold separated from it and began bounding to them. Wednesday's Dawn was approaching them. In a few minutes, she had reached the island, though the ship was still about ten minutes away.

"Well met," she said as she transformed into her human form.

"What took so long?" Arthur asked, exasperated.

"Long?" she asked quizzically. "I had to convoy with Duchess Wednesday, get her permission, and commission a suitable ship. I will have you know that this was done quite expediently."

She sounded offended, and then Arthur remembered that of course Denizens would have different notions of time having lived for so long. Days were probably nothing more than minutes.

"That said, how is the ship you've commissioned?" Arthur asked. The Will also hopped up and asked, "What had Duchess Wednesday deigned to do? Will she truly hand over the Key as asked?"

"The ship is called the _Moth_. It isn't an actual recognized ship, but if we intend to catch Feverfew we will need to keep a low profile as he hasn't dared to attack an official ship yet," she replied. "As for Milady, she has agreed so long as the Third Part of the Will is released."

"Then we'll need Feverfew's puzzle to get into the worldlet," Arthur said. "Which means we have to force it from him, or he gives it to use, which doesn't seem likely."

"No negotiating," Wednesday's Dawn said. "I- and Milady are not about to make deals with that wretched reprobate who has deemed to crown himself a king of all seas. He will be dealt with swiftly and remorselessly."

The Will croaked. "Don't make me laugh. Your Mistress is already a reprobate ruling illegally, and Lord Arthur is free to do as he pleases. That said, I too would advise Lord Arthur from negotiating with this Feverfew."

Arthur was honestly already tired of people trying to tell him what was best for him, especially considering the fact that he was the one with the Atlas, and so probably the only one in the House who knew everything on what was happening, or going to happen, if they didn't succeed.

"Another note," Wednesday's Dawn said with a strange change in the tone of her voice. "There is a package for you."

She held out a small wooden box which opened up. Without thinking, Arthur put his hand inside the box as both the Will and Suzy shouted out to warn him, but too late.

Something wet touched his hands, and Arthur drew them away, to note that his hands had become a deep shade of red, as if someone had poured blood all over them.

"What was that for?" Suzy asked. "I thought you was suppose'd to be helpin' us!"

"Treachery!" the Will shouted. "We should have never trusted one of the Day's-"

Arthur waved his hand to signal the two of them to be quiet. "What is this?" he asked.

"It is Feverfew's Red Hand," Wednesday's Dawn said. "One of his treasures were in this, and he marks them so that he can find those who stole them. Now that you have the mark, he will not rest until he had hunted you down."

"Oh," Arthur said, as if that was a perfect explanation for that and having a tracer on him was a good thing.

"We need it to draw his attention to us," Wednesday's Dawn said. "I could have picked someone else, but that person would have most likely not survived, and this was your campaign to begin with, so I believed that you would be the person best set to carry it."

"Treason," the Will said. "Had that been required, anyone else could have carried this so-called Red Hand, yourself included. Why not rub your own hands on it? Lord Arthur, at this point I would best ask you to use the Minute Key to take this traitor out. You merely need to utter the words, 'From Nothing, to Nothing,' and she will-"

"It's alright," Arthur said. "I agree with her. If someone has to have it, it might as well be me."

Wednesday's Dawn seemed surprised at this. That made Arthur wonder if Wednesday had ordered for this to be done, and if so, was it some sort of test? To see if he was 'worthy' or not?

"Regardless," the Will said, "I must advise you against opening random packages that are handed to you. It is quite a common trick to hide something in there, like a bomb or a transfer plate."

"Uh-huh," Arthur said absentmindedly as the ship came closer to the island. It couldn't go further for fear of one of the rocks striking it, so a small rowboat came towards them.

The Denizens were singing, and Arthur wasn't sure why, but it sounded sort of like the _Spongebob Squarepants_ theme song, but Arthur was sure that couldn't be right. A lot of them had eye patches and missing legs, but he guessed that they were done on purpose rather than actual accidents.

Most of them looked like pirates, except for one of them who seemed to be the only one who knew what he was doing. He introduced himself as Sunscorch, the ship's first mate. He also said that he was the only sailor on board and the rest of them were actually just counting clerks made into sailors when the Deluge had occurred.

On the ship, Arthur was immediately whisked away to see the captain, a Denizen named Catapillow. He then spent about twenty minutes with him as Captain Catapillow said how honored he was to have such a high-ranking person on board, and went about showing his stamp collection and talking about his favorites, how he got them, etc. He had even decided to give some of them names, which Arthur found pretty much downright insane, but then again there were lots of people who were a teeny bit eccentric about collecting things even on earth.

He was then taken to see a Denizen named Dr. Scamandros, who, he was told, was the only Upper House trained sorcerer anywhere in the House except for the Upper House and Incomparable Gardens. What really were fascinating were his tattoos.

"Good morning," the Denizen had said and took a look at Arthur's hands. He then grabbed them. "I see, Feverfew's Red Hand." His tattoos took the form of someone standing near a grave and weeping. "Quite interesting sorcery indeed, though I've never seen it before as anyone has is well… dead."

"If I need to," Arthur asked, "can I get rid of it? I guess you can't wash it off, but could the Key do so?"

"Mmmm," Dr. Scamandros mumbled. A bunch of books piled themselves precariously on his cheek, in danger of falling over at any given moment. "The Red Hand has, as far as I know, no way of actually getting rid of it. One Denizen, I've heard, attempted to cut off his hand, but when it grew back it still had the mark on it. Then again, the Keys do circumvent a lot of sorcery, so it should be able to be washed off using a Key…"

Wednesday's Dawn had gone to see preparations for the battle, and the Will had tagged along to keep an eye on her. Suzy was nowhere to be seen, which should have bothered Arthur, but she probably wasn't going to do something really stupid. Probably.

Afterwards, Dr. Scamandros gave Arthur a run down on the Deluge, not that he needed it, and explained how he had been a sorcerer in the Upper House and had been giving exams for over seven hundred years (this made Arthur wonder if he was bad at giving exams or that maybe studying took longer in the House) and was about to become a doctor of the first order when he lost his exam paper. He explained that everything lost ended up in the Border Sea eventually, but as he had been searching for over two thousand years, it probably meant that it hadn't been lost and was rather taken away for 'political reasons.' These reasons either involve a wedding invitation, or a giant tower of Legos depending on which fanfic you want to believe.

After mumbling for a bit, Dr. Scamandros stopped. "There's something wrong… I smell sorcery afoot!"

He ran out of his cabin, glanced around, and pointed somewhere and said, "The _Shiver_ is approaching!"

Everyone besides Sunscorch and Wednesday's Dawn panicked. Sunscorch gave out his orders pretty clearly, and Wednesday's Dawn seemed to be inspecting her weapons.

Arthur noticed right then that his hands had begun itching like crazy. He grabbed the Minute Key and it stopped.

The _Shiver_ , Arthur could see, was a huge ship made up of the bones of a huge shark, or a fish just like one. A storm seemed to be gathering around it, which told Arthur that it was probably sorcerous in nature. The wind had suddenly turned against their ship, slowing down their movements. Dr. Scamandros was busy writing something down on his sleeve and taking out various things from his pockets and taking readings and other stuff Arthur could guess was sorcerous stuff.

The Will bounded up to Arthur and said, "Do not worry. We'll take them. We have a Key, and of course, me. Only thing is we need to keep an eye out for the treacherous Dawn-"

Arthur waved his hand. "I don't think she was the one who decided to betray the Will. And regardless of the fact that I might not entirely trust her, I think she meant it when she said she wants to take down Feverfew."

The _Shiver_ was only about fifteen minutes away from them when it happened. Something started creaking all over the ship, and there were screams. Arthur felt something bite his toes, and he looked down and saw that the floorboards were wringing around like snakes, suddenly growing mouths.

He pointed the Minute Key down and said, "Stop!" The wringing stopped around him, but the rest of the ship was still affected.

"The Key is weak even in the Lower House," the Will said. "Weaker so outside its domain." 

It began hopping around, and wherever it touched the floor the spell ceased.

Sunscorch ran over to him. "They'll be onto us in another ten minutes. No need for them to use the cannons now."

There was a loud thundering noise and something fell into the water.

"He might do it for sport though…" Scamandros said.

Arthur was beginning to panic. This had seemed a whole lot simpler in his head, it was simply use the Key, beat Feverfew, and be on your way, but the thing was that if they were using cannons, people on the ship could get hurt, even killed in the battle before Feverfew was defeated.

 _Then again, they'll all die anyway once the Will is fulfilled_ , Arthur thought bitterly and snapped out of his reverie. "Fine, we'll just have to go to him. Wednesday's Dawn! I need you to take me aboard the _Shiver_!"

She didn't answer him, but jumped, morphed mid-air, and carried Arthur and the Will along with him into the water.

 **A/N: I didn't remember a lot about** _ **Drowned Wednesday**_ **and I went ahead and invented a few details myself. Also, I have to note now just how cool Feverfew was as a villain. He was just a mortal human, and managed to learn House Sorcery enough to essentially proclaim himself king over the Border Sea. And not a single fanfic centered on him.**

 **Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and please review if you have thoughts to share.**


	4. Duchess Wednesday III

**A/N: First things first, I can't really express how embarrassed I am at accidentally saying that a shark could have a skeleton of bones. Thing is, I probably read in the second grade that sharks have cartilage instead of bone. Not only that, but I've been studying for an exam intensively (hence my absence) and the differences between** _ **Chondrichthyes**_ **and** _ **Osteichthyes**_ **with examples was on there, so I knew that sharks have cartilaginous skeletons. Thing was that I thought that the books mentioned it was made out of shark's bone, so I wrote it without thinking.**

 **Also, Otter Seastar, thanks again for the review. As for the treasure box, I never mentioned it, but basically the idea was that his treasure was inside a wooden box, so she could pick up the box. In the original book though, I remember the buoy (or whatever the floating thing was) was originally marked red, but I thought you could also put a spell like that _inside_ a box as well, and perhaps Feverfew had done so with some of his treasure. As for how she got it without triggering any alarms, what's Scamandros for? Though I guess I should have maybe made that clearer originally.**

 **And I suppose if you mention that the First Part of the Will is diligence, that does make sense that it would act first, before prudence (who would wait), faith (who would also wait), justice (who seemed to be bent on punishing Thursday), moderation (who was imprisoned), and charity and hope were probably trapped too well to do anything. And I think Saturday had to let it collect in some places, otherwise how would she recycle it for the rain? I guess the important thing was to never let it all collect in one place. It makes me wonder though if she could have somehow made a huge sun instead, and trapped the Will in its photons, then allow it to reflect back to the sun eventually.**

 **Aquarius kills FOZ, thanks for the review, and I'm a bit confused. It was Wednesday's Dawn in the books who was free, and I didn't understand the last line about the paragraphs. Could you be a bit more clearer or maybe PM me?**

Arthur's first instinct was to grab the Minute Key.

It was his second instinct too. A lot of things went through his mind at the moment, including the fact that he couldn't breathe underwater, though he was sure that the Minute Key's sorcerous powers would keep him alive long enough to reach the _Shiver_.

The second thing that struck him was the lightning. It was storming overhead, and he was quickly left wondering if lightning would strike them underwater, and whether or not the key would save him from it.

The water was unbelievably cold, but at the very least Wednesday's Dawn's skin didn't feel like sandpaper against his. He didn't feel the First Part of the Will at his side, but he guessed it was either clutching to his collar or swimming besides them.

Arthur suddenly remembered that frogs were amphibians, and no amphibians lived in salt water. And here the Will was, in the middle of a sea.

For some reason, that fact seemed extremely amusing to him.

They surfaced almost as instantly as they had dived. Arthur didn't have any time to get a bearing on his surroundings, but he did see one thing clearly, and that was Wednesday's Dawn unleashing her whip at someone.

One thing that had always struck Arthur about the House was how rank seemed to be everything. It dictated how tall one was, how one looked, and it seemed even one's intelligence (instead of the other way around.) And the officers, or the higher ranking denizens, were always easy to spot out. That seemed like a bit of a weakness to him if someone was going to try and take down the head of an operation.

The pirates probably followed the same code. The pirate that Wednesday's Dawn had attacked was easily dressed the most magnificently. He looked like how the ideal pirate captain of movies would look like. He was dressed in a scarlet overcoat with several weapons placed haphazardly here and there, though they didn't seem out of place, but rather they seemed to suit him that way.

Arthur didn't get a look at his face though as Wednesday's Dawn's whip decapitated him.

For a moment, Arthur had thought that they'd one, and was about to breath a sigh of relief when the head flew back and reattached itself. Feverfew then turned around like this was something that happened all the time, and Arthur saw his face, and his golden teeth for but an instant before Wednesday Dawn attacked again and sent the head flying once more.

This time though, the First Part of the Will, which appeared to have still been under Arthur's collar, leaped and landed on the decapitated neck, and remained there. The head flew back again to meet the body, but seemed to be unable to reattach itself around the Will. Feverfew snarled, and the body took out a rifle and pointed it at the Will.

The Will hopped off and back to Arthur as the rifle fired.

"Nothing-laced bullets and sorcery, otherwise I would never have been forced to move," the Will said. "Such things, oh, illegal, if the Architect knew were being done, she would have taken down this Nithling as soon as possible. That Duchess Wednesday allowed-"

"He does not rule by her consent!" Wednesday's Dawn screamed. Arthur groaned, here they were on the enemy's ship, and they were probably going to get surrounded if they didn't do something soon, and all these two could argue about was who was responsible for this like two toddlers.

"That does not matter now," the Will said. "Though I will of course, make a note of this when we try her for her crimes. Lord Arthur, use the Key and kill him. His sorcery shall not protect him from that."

Arthur knew the words to say, 'From Nothing, To Nothing,' but found that he couldn't say them. True, Feverfew was a criminal, and he didn't doubt that any court would have sentenced him to death on the spot, but that was also true for the other Trustees, and he didn't want to kill them either. Plus, Feverfew had once been human, like Arthur and Suzy, and all the Piper's Children and for all he knew was trying to make the best out of finding himself in the House.

But, as Arthur looked at Feverfew's so _human_ face, his eyes watered, and the illusion shifted, and Arthur saw Feverfew for what he was. He looked like a shriveled up carcass, whose skin was as black as charcoal, eyes were sunken, and teeth had fallen out. Hundreds of pieces of paper with writing on them adored his body, all sorcerous notes to protect him and such. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

"I'm afraid you won't be wanting to do that," Feverfew said, noticing the Minute Key. "If you do so, the ship is rigged so that in event of my death it will dissolve in Nothing. You'll never get clear fast enough, not to mention that if you want to do such at a safe distance, you won't be able to kill me at that distance. Rather than that, let's have a compromise. I was thinking of a contest-"

Arthur had heard enough. True, he wasn't going to kill Feverfew, but he couldn't exactly let him wander around the House. He wasn't sure what Feverfew was supposed to be, but it was clear that he was no longer human. And Arthur couldn't let a Nithling like that roam around.

Instead, Arthur took a deep breath, and pointed the Minute Key at Feverfew. "Key, make him corporeal," Arthur said.

A stream of bright blue jetted out of the Minute Key and struck Feverfew. The pieces of paper withered up and burned to ashes, and were then carried away by the wind. The body then began to chip away, and finally there was nothing left except for something in the center, something that gave out a sky blue light.

For a few seconds, there was crying- the crying of a small child. It then flew away into the clouds.

"We have to leave immediately," the Will croaked. "The ship will collapse soon under Nothing-"

"No it won't," Arthur said. "It would, but only if Feverfew was killed. He wasn't. He was made corporeal. Or at least, that's what I _think_ I did. I'm not sure where he went."

"Sorcery," Wednesday's Dawn snorted derisively. "Always has its loopholes."

Arthur paused and looked around. The pirates on board had stopped firing and were looking at them.

"Um, I'm Lord Arthur, Rightful Heir, and also soon-to-be ruler of the Border Sea," Arthur said. "Also, your commander is now gone. Put down arms and surrender, and we'll, uh, lessen your punishments."

It had a lot lacking, but the pirates did leave their weapons. Wednesday's Dawn then went ahead and began giving orders, and her voice was far more authoritative than Arthur's.

The storm subsided, but the clouds remained. The two ships, the _Shiver_ and the _Moth_ came close together, so close that Arthur was able to leap from one to the other, something that he wouldn't have been able to do outside the House.

Thankfully, there weren't many injuries. At least, not severe ones, though they would have almost certainly killed a human. Arthur felt obliged to heal the Nothing-based wounds, since they wouldn't heal at all without sorcery. The sailors seemed really relieved, showing they hadn't had much confidence that they would succeed. _They nearly all died because of me_ , Arthur thought.

After that, Doctor Scamandros and Arthur spent over three hours searching the _Shiver_ and looking for Feverfew's puzzle. They found a large amount of traps, and on seven different occasions Arthur had to use the Minute Key to nullify traps that Doctor Scamandros had no idea on how to circumvent.

They found a lot of things which, though interesting, were useless to them. Apparently, Feverfew had been the one to actually sink the _Titanic_ (his reaction to its name as 'The Unsinkable Ship' appeared to be something along the lines of 'Challenge Accepted') and had installed its doors on his own cabin.

Also, he had _the_ Mona Lisa in his cabin. It had been stolen in around 1877 by him, and the one back on earth was a sorcerous fake. There were also other treasures, mostly from earth, probably because Feverfew had been from earth. After becoming an immortal sorcerer for some reason he had still wanted to go back to earth, and steal and do what no mortal could.

Aside from these tokens, there were lots of notes and papers detailing sorcery, as well as his own sorcerous experiments.

"Oh," Dr. Scamandros said as he rifled through the notes. He had the look of a teenage girl who had discovered a yaoi manga and was dying to read it, but was thinking about what everyone would say if she was caught. "These experiments… they're brilliant. Crude, but brilliant. Expressly forbidden in the Original Law, but I doubt even Lady Saturday would know these. Reading this would be illegal yet…"

"I authorize you to do it," Arthur said. "We'll need every bit of help we can get against the Morrow Days, and if it turns out that there's something in there that can help us like some sorcery they don't know or won't use, we'll use it."

Dr. Scamandros pocketed the notes.

"But where's the puzzle?" Arthur asked. He sighed, and knew that the answer was obvious. Or at least, the place where the answer lay was obvious. He took out the Atlas and asked, "Where is the puzzle to Feverfew's worldlet?" The Atlas as always, took time in opening up and reaching the page, and even more in writing out a single line:

 _Feverfew's puzzle to his worldlet is located behind the painting of the XXXXXXXX, located two spaces away from the piece known as the Mona Lisa._

Arthur couldn't even read the name of the painting, which he guessed meant that it was from someplace other than earth. The painting was almost instantly apparent, it was the one that made the least sense to Arthur (though with 'Abstract Art' gaining traction back on earth, that wasn't much of a guarantee) and Dr. Scamandros noticed there was a trap behind it, which was quickly nullified and the puzzle taken.

The Augurie puzzle pieces seemed to make a pirate's skull. It felt odd to the touch to Arthur, like it had something on it, though Scamandros swore it didn't have anything he could detect.

There was also Feverfew's own personal ledger, containing various locations in the Border Sea where he had hidden treasure.

"This must be worth…" Scamandros said as coins rained down his cheeks and numbers clashed on his chin, "…. I can't even begin to fathom."

"That doesn't matter," Arthur said. "We need to go get the Third Part of the Will immediately. Let's just hope it's better than the First Part."

 **A/N: So that ends this chapter. Yes, I know hiding something behind a painting is cliché, but everything in the House is pretty much cliché (and usually on purpose too) so I guess it is all right.**

 **Also, for those of you who may not remember, being made corporeal was mentioned in the prologue of** _ **Mister Monday**_ **and consisted of having your memories wiped and sent as a living, breathing baby to a new world. (Though that is sort of like rebirth if you think about it, which is what happens after dying in some religions, so that sort of does feel like killing?) Arthur knows this thanks to the Atlas. It's never mentioned again though.**

 **Also, I have to say that in the first book, the Key was pretty good at protecting Arthur, but then later on several times it was mentioned that Nothing-based sorcery was able to circumvent the wards around it, though this pretty much never actually happened and sort of felt like the author was trying to wriggle around a tough spot.**


	5. Duchess Wednesday IV

**A/N: Sorry about it, but updates will be slower now. I can only do around one chapter of a single story per week, so it will depend on which one I focus on at the moment.**

Despite the fact that he didn't really want to, Arthur took a nap on the _Moth_. He knew that he had to move as quickly as possible, because it wouldn't take the Morrow Days long to notice what he was doing… or at least it wouldn't take Saturday long from the descriptions of her Arthur had read in the Atlas. He somehow doubted anyone else would care.

He could've slept where Feverfew did, but though that bed looked a whole lot more comfortable, Arthur wasn't sure there weren't any traps on it, and he'd feel really weird sleeping on the bed of someone he had just defeated.

He woke up when Dr. Scamandros came in to inform him that their preparations to reach the Third Part of the Will were complete.

Suzy then walked in, and she was wearing an assemblage of things that Feverfew had worn, including a rather nice pirate captain's hat, though everything looked mismatched on her. Arthur could tell she had stuffed her pockets… and he wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was, how, or where she had gotten it from. The First Part of the Will was resting on her shoulder.

"Good morning, Sir Arthur," the Will said.

Arthur muttered something back. "How about our plans to get the Third Part of the Will?"

"We are duly ready, sir," the Will said.

"Indeed," Dr. Scamandros added. "Perhaps you'd like some tea or biscuits or-"

Arthur waved his hand. "We can all have that while we're going into the worldlet. I want this done as fast as possible."

"While I am all for diligence, sir," the Will said. "I should also request that you not act in haste. We have had to wait over ten thousand years for this moment, after all. A few more years isn't much."

Arthur shook his head. "I can't afford to waste time. The other Morrow Days aren't going to stand by, they'll already be plotting to strike back at me, or my family back on Earth."

There was another reason of course, that Arthur had to hurry, but he wasn't going to divulge that.

The entire crew was already ready, and Dr. Scamadros used the Augurie pieces, but they just fell apart. It wasn't until Arthur pointed his Key at them and commanded them to form that they did.

The moment it worked though, Arthur could tell something was wrong. The picture of the island seemed different, the mountains somehow seemed shorter.

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked as the ship crossed over the picture, now inside the worldlet. There was something off about the sky's color too.

"Erm, this is a just a theory at the moment," Dr. Scamandros said, "but I believe that perhaps this wordlet was linked to Feverfew somehow, and his nonexistence has caused this to begin to… ah, unravel."

Arthur checked the Atlas, and it confirmed what Dr. Scamandros had said, except it said that Feverfew had caused it when he realized what Arthur was doing.

The landscape was melting like a painting held near a candle. "Why hasn't it been destroyed yet?" Arthur asked.

"It should take a few more minutes," Dr. Scamandros said. "Time runs differently in this wordlet than in the House."

Once Arthur was on the shore, he plunged the Minute Key into the sand and said, "Key! Prevent this island from returning to the void! Stabilize it!"

The Key grew very warm under his hand, but the island didn't seem to get any better. The Will hopped onto the island. "I believe you have managed to delay it. It will take a few more than several days for this to end."

Arthur nodded. The rest of Feverfew's pirates were there, but they had already received word from Wenesday's Dawn, and the prisoners had been freed. Arthur didn't really have much time for this though, as he began trekking towards the hills, with the Will on his shoulder. Wednesday's Dawn remained behind to try and get everyone else on board for when they would be leaving, and also for counting the stolen goods in Feverfew's inventory, with the clerk denizens being rather happy at getting to do this. A smaller party went with Arthur.

As he was marching through the woods, he had the eerie feeling they were being watched.

'No one ever looks up…' he thought and looked up.

Both Arthur and the Denizen up in the trees screamed simultaneously. The Denizen, and about half a dozen more, fell out of the trees. Arthur pointed his Key at them. "Stop! I'm the Rightful Heir!"

It took around two minutes to convince them of that, but then they began singing some song about a Carp, and Arthur just hoped that their journey would be quick.

The caverns inside seemed to be intact for the moment, and were buzzing with activity as Denizens and Piper's Children went about, all of them glancing at Arthur but not daring to do anything else.

In the center, there was a huge bowl with what looked like a giant goldfish- no, a carp, which was almost as big as a minivan.

There was silence in the chamber as Arthur descended to meet the Carp. The Carp swirled around in its bowl and looked at Arthur with two huge eyes.

"What is it traveller?" the Carp asked.

"I'm the Rightful Heir," Arthur said. The First Part of the Will jumped off Arthur's shoulder and croaked, "He's right you know."

"I do not sense the Second Key, though you carry a portion of the First," the Carp said.

"Yeah, we sort of decided to come to you first," Arthur said. "Is that a problem?"

"Yes-" the Carp said, obviously going into a very long explanation on why it was wrong.

"Deal with it because that's how we're rolling," Arthur snapped, having lost the patience to explain himself yet another time. "And this whole island's going to collapse, so we need to go."

"Ah yes, I do sense something of the sort," the Carp said. "But we should all have faith. I will ask my followers to sing the four hundred and thirty-second song of faith, and with every verse, I shall grow smaller."

"How long is this song?" Arthur asked.

"Five hours," the Carp answered.

"Did you not understand the part of us being in a hurry here?" Arthur asked.

"He can't talk to the Carp like that!" someone protested.

"I'm the Rightful Heir," Arthur said, exasperated, "and we really need to get a move on."

Despite all of this, it still took the most of a day to get everyone on ships and for the Augurie puzzle to be used again, returning them to the Border Sea.

"Duchess Wednesday will be coming here," Arthur said to Wednesday's Dawn. "It's best that you take everyone else, and leave me and the parts of the Will in a rowboat to go meet her."

"I would like to meet Milady when she regains her form and you heal her, as promised," Wednesday's Dawn said, with a hint of venom in her voice, as if she was saying 'You better uphold your end of the bargain, mister, or else!'

Arthur didn't say anything.

He didn't want to lie, after all. And he couldn't tell her the truth either. So, he and the two parts of the Will got into a small rowboat and made their way to where they knew Duchess Wednesday would be feeding.

Reading the description in the Atlas did nothing to prepare Arthur for seeing Duchess Wednesday. When she first appeared on the horizon, he had thought a storm was approaching. And when Arthur finally figured out what he was looking at, his head almost exploded.

The thing was, it was just so _big_ that Arthur just couldn't take it all in. This didn't seem to faze the Carp though, who jumped out of its bowl and swam towards the path of the incoming whale and shouted, "Duchess Wednesday! I am Part Three of the Will, and I hereby demand that you perform your duty as entrusted by the Architect herself, and hand over the Third Key and with it dominion over the Border Sea to the Rightful Heir!"

That didn't seem to do anything, and for a few minutes Arthur was wondering whether Duchess Wednesday was really going to uphold her end of the bargain, when he noticed that the whale seemed to be growing smaller. Once it came within a few hundred yards of them, she was no larger than a normal whale, and finally took the form of an impossibly beautiful Denizen, standing on top of the waves, and holding a huge trident in her right hand. A line of azure blood flowed from her lip, which she was biting, Arthur realized, due to the force she was exerting to maintain that form.

Duchess Wednesday spoke a few lines, so fast that all of them escaped Arthur, except for the last words, which were, "and so let the Will be done!"

The Third Key flew from her hand to Arthur's, and Arthur felt its power flowing through him as he spoke the incantation to claim it, which he had memorized during all those moments he had free. This, Arthur realized, was how a real and full-fledged Key felt like. The Minute Key was almost nothing compared to this.

"Thank you," Duchess Wednesday managed to say.

And then, Arthur stepped forward and stabbed her in the stomach with the Third Key.

Wednesday was surprised, and then Arthur began saying something. Three holes appeared in her stomach, and from there Nothing began pouring out. Not only that, other stuff that she had swallowed came out too. After the Nothing was gone, out came treasure, Nissers, and other Denizens. Arthur even thought that perhaps two of them looked like a Noon and Dusk.

The whole thing took several hours, and Arthur's arm was beginning to hurt and he felt several veins throb in his neck at the taxing effort. He finally said, "Be cured of your hunger, Wednesday."

With that, Wednesday was healed, the Nothing that was dissolving her had been removed, and all that was in her stomach, or at least the important things, were removed.

Wednesday's Dawn landed near Arthur, along with Noon and Dusk.

"You stabbed her," Dawn hissed.

"I needed to, in order to save her and all those inside her," Arthur said. "Which was why I wanted you to stay away."

Dawn still glared at Arthur, though Noon and Dusk seemed to look at him with reverence, and Wednesday with adoration.

"That said, we need a ship," Arthur said.

"If it would please Lord Arthur," Dusk said, "my own ship, the _Nightingale_ has also been released, and though it might need some minor repairs, I believe it should be sufficient for the time being."

Arthur took a good look at everything that had come out of Wednesday (all of the things were small at first and grew to normal size as they drifted away) and saw that it seemed like the entire sea in front of him had been swept with almost everything imaginable.

Arthur stated his approval of Dusk's plan, and they basically rowed all the way past all the debris to a majestic-looking ship that was made up of dark wood and seemed to emanate the essence of the night.

Along the way, a small object caught Arthur's eye. It was a small toy elephant, one that he vaguely remembered, and he pocketed it. No one commented on it though.

Arthur was so tired that he didn't remember much of what happened after that. He thought Dusk had given him some quarters to sleep in, which was where Arthur had woken up later on. The room was nice and made of embosomed mahogany, and the bed was pretty comfy as well. It didn't look like Dusk's own room though.

Once he was done getting ready, Wednesday, her Times, and the parts of the Will came in.

"So, first things first," Arthur said. "I think all the Times can keep their places."

"I believe you should be consulting me before making such decisions?" the Third Part of the Will said. The First Part hopped and seemed to agree.

"Keep believing then," Arthur said bluntly. "And, it is clear that while I'll be busy in trying to wrest the other Keys, someone needs to be in charge of the Border Sea. I think we need someone experienced to be regent, and out of everyone, I think Wednesday should do so."

There were gasps of surprise, and sounds of disapproval from both pieces of the Will.

"You do realize this is how this whole thing began, don't you?" the First Part asked.

"I must protest against this-" the Third Part began.

"I'm simply making her regent," Arthur said. "I won't be giving her the Third Key, so it's not like she can rebel or anything."

Wednesday's Dawn frowned. "But the Key is needed here… we need it to fix the sea."

"You'll have to do without for some time," Arthur said. "I need the Third Key to help me overpower Monday. Speaking of which, make a course to Port Wednesday so we can use a phone, I need to talk to Mister Monday. And, my decision for regent is final." So softly that no one could hear, he added, "It's not like it'll matter anyway."

"You could make me regent," the Third Part said. It was tempting choice, Arthur thought as the Will wouldn't do anything overtly against him, but he also knew he couldn't let the Will grow too strong. These pieces might not be aware of their final destiny, but they would eventually, and Arthur didn't want them in positions of power when that happened.

"Nah," Arthur said. "I'll need you to help me take down Monday, and the other Days. The Will is too powerful to be sitting behind a paper throne, and should be out there, fighting or something or the other."

That seemed to placate everyone for a moment. "And, I need to talk to Wednesday in private."

* * *

Everyone shuffled out except Wednesday, who was understandably nervous. She was feeling a whole lot better since being healed, but not all of it had worn off.

"Is there something you wished to say, sir?" Wednesday asked. "I just wanted to let you know again how thankful I am."

"You don't need to thank me," Arthur said. Though he was just a child, something about him scared Wednesday, probably the aura that the Third Key was emanating.

"No really I-"

"I wasn't saying that to be humble," Arthur said darkly. "I meant there really is no need to thank me. "

Then, an overpowering sensation came over Wednesday, like what one would feel in the presence of someone with a Key. Arthur appeared taller, but more than that, his eyes started growing bigger and bigger, until they enveloped Wednesday.

And within his eyes, Wednesday saw the House, and all of the Architect's creation, held within those two orbs. Suddenly, a wave of Nothing came and destroyed all of it in an instant, obliterating all the millions of worlds and the House.

"I need you to understand one thing," Arthur said. "I… I exist for the destruction of the House."

"So… you know?" Wednesday asked.

"Indeed," Arthur said. "I know. And I know that I'm not a savior, but rather, a destroyer."

The overwhelming sensation ceased, and Wednesday, newly appointed regent of the Border Sea, left.

 **A/N: And that ends the Wednesday arc. I hoped you liked it, because the next ones will be slightly anti-climatic as things will be faster with Arthur using the Keys. Also, Suzy doesn't really get that much action now with Arthur acting faster and with his Keys, but I'll see if I can find her something to do. aquarius kills FOZ, thanks for the review, and it did happen.**

 **Again, thanks for reading!**


	6. Mister Monday

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Otter Seastar, Arthur really isn't bad, he just knows the truth (explained later on) and has accepted it. Aquarius kills FOZ, thanks too, and if the House was French, would the Secondary Realms be England?**

 **Also, Feverfew will technically still die when/ if the House is destroyed, and who says he's back on Earth? He could just as likely have been reborn an animal on some planet with no life, or even worse, as Yamcha from Dragon Ball Z (it's okay if you don't get it).**

Mister Monday was relaxing in his abode in the Dayroom, as usual. Pretty much no one in the Lower House was actually working, as usual. Very few cared about this, as usual.

But, there was something that made Mister Monday's sleep uneasy. He couldn't feel his Key, at the very least, not all of it. He only had half of it, and though he possessed the greater half, it still felt like a piece of him was physically missing.

His idyllic sleep was interrupted by the loudest ringing. He immediately snapped up awake. He didn't have a telephone, but one had just appeared right near his bath tub/chair.

Monday sighed. The only one with enough audacity to call him were the other Days, most likely Saturday, and she was probably going to go on and on about filing a report on how the Will had escaped or part of the Key was missing.

Mister Monday hated writing reports. He wasn't going to write one.

He picked it up, and surprisingly, there wasn't anyone's voice that echoed all around the place. The voice was soft.

"Is this Mister Monday?" the voice asked. It sounded like a child's, Mister Monday noted.

"Who did you call?"

"I told the operator to give me Mister Monday," the voice replied.

"THEN OF COURSE I'M GOING TO BE MISTER MONDAY YOU TWIT!" Mister Monday shouted into the phone. "And do you realize that you just interrupted my nap? Just who are you? And why did the operator let you call me?"

Mister Monday ended his sentence with a combination of a yawn and a snarl.

"She didn't really have much choice," the voice answered. "After all, I said 'please', and only slightly more importantly, I'm the Duke of the Border Sea."

That woke up Mister Monday better than a bucket of water to his face. With a speed that no one seeing him sleeping would have thought him capable of, he gripped the phone tighter.

"I am the Rightful Heir, Arthur Penhalingon," Arthur said. "I have claimed the Third Key."

Mister Monday frowned. "The First Key comes first, doesn't it? And for that matter- HAND BACK MY KEY, YOU THIEF!"

"It's not really yours when you stole it," Arthur said. "And I've called to negotiate the terms of your surrender. Put quite simply, hand over the Greater Key to me."

Mister Monday snorted. "And if I say no?"

"Then, in that case, I should remind you that I now have the Third Key, as well as part of your Key as well. If we fight, I will win with these two. Not to mention that on my direction, I could have my soldiers from the Border Sea invade the Lower House, and I don't think you've really defended it quite well. I could also release Nithlings and Nothing-laced water into the Lower House, and pretty soon you'd be ruler of nothing."

Mister Monday growled. "Threats are useless against me! I don't care how many soldiers you bring, I will not fail!"

"What are you fighting so hard for?" Arthur asked. "Your position with the other Trustees? Do you think that they actually care about you? If I invade, will Sir Thursday send the Army of the Architect to intervene? Will Saturday supply you with sorcerers? No, they'll leave you alone to combat the forces I send, and you won't last longer than a week. Not to mention that this doesn't mean I'm dethroning you. I won't even be able to spend much time tending to the Lower House anyway, and while I'm gone, you could be regent, and I could heal you of your Sloth. You could be back to normal, and running the Lower House like it should be again."

"How can I trust you at all?" Monday snarled back.

"Just ask Wednesday," Arthur said. "I'm a man- err, a boy of my word. I'll give you three days to consider my offer."

The phone disconnected. Immediately, Mister Monday screamed for his Times. They came, and he said, very fast, "We're going to be at war with the Border Sea. Drain all places where there are navigable waters. Inform Sir Thursday and the Upper House, though I doubt that they'll do anything."

Noon volunteered to lead the forces, which Monday agreed to. Dusk offered to use his contacts around the House to try and see what Arthur was doing. Monday was going to say yes to that too, but he fell asleep before that.

* * *

Arthur had gotten off the phone with Monday. He was currently at Port Wednesday, with most of the people he had rescued bustling about.

"So, what do we do now?" Dusk asked.

"We wait three days," Arthur said. "Though I doubt Monday will accept. What do you think, Wednesday?"

"I don't remember much of Monday after I was turned into a whale," Wednesday said. "But he was extremely lethargic even then. He didn't even bother turning up for deposing me like the other Days. I believe that he's gotten worse since then, so most likely he simply won't reply."

"Shall I get the troops ready sir?" Noon asked.

"What for?"

"For when Monday refuses," Noon replied.

"That was just a bluff," Arthur said. "If Monday doesn't agree to hand over the rest of the Key, I'll go face him using the Improbable Stair, after separating him from the bulk of his forces. Both parts of the Will are going to help as well. I can't actually send soldiers, the Lower House has been messed up enough as it is, not to mention that many Denizens could die."

"I see."

"That said," Arthur said, "You should probably go and get the troops ready anyway, and start gathering gun powder and the such, so any of the other Day's moles will think we're about to strike."

Earlier, Arthur had had another phone call with Monday's Dusk, explaining that Dusk was to inform Monday of the movements of Arthur's army, and to move the bulk of Monday's soldiers away from where he was for when Arthur would strike.

"And another thing," Arthur said. "Someone find Suzy, I need to find out where she got all her stuff from."

* * *

Three days passed pretty quickly, during which Arthur had been asked time and time again to use the Key to fix various problems occurring with the sea, but he had refused on the grounds that he had no desire to become an immortal… at least, not yet. In case he would ever need to go back to Earth, Arthur wanted to stay human.

Mister Monday had sent no reply, so Arthur took the Third Part of the Will in its bowl in one hand, the Third Key in the other hand, and the First Part of the Will on his shoulder.

It took him a while to get getting onto the Stair properly, but once he was finally on he made sure to balance himself properly. It was difficult walking someplace where there was no railing and holding two things, but he tried to manage and tried focusing on the place he had seen in the Atlas, where he knew Mister Monday would probably be sleeping right now, or at least, he had been sleeping at the time when the Atlas had checked.

Once, they had ended up in a huge grass plain. Arthur couldn't tell if it was on Earth or another planet, and as there was no staircase or anything like it nearby, he took to drawing one using the Third Key.

The other landing that interrupted there travel was inside an old warehouse, and the final one was a hill overlooking a huge castle.

After that, they emerged somewhere that was completely obscured in mist, and it took Arthur several seconds to realize that he was finally at their destination, and he took a step forward to see Mister Monday sleeping in his wheelchair not five feet away from them. He was wearing his usual Chinese robe, and had two huge gold coins over his eyes. Arthur wondered if that was a new beauty trend in the House.

Arthur recited the incantation that he had memorized over all those days, and Mister Monday immediately opened his eyes and went to grab the Hour Key, but it was too late, as it was already in Arthur's hand.

Wasting no time, the Third Part of the Will jumped out of its fish bowl, grew larger in mid-air and while Monday was saying something, probably about to give the Key an order, and then swallowed his head.

The Hour Key reflexively turned towards Monday, but Arthur held it firmly while the First Part of the Will hopped onto Mister Monday's leg.

Mister Monday managed to get the Third Part off, and as Arthur was about to prick a drop of blood, he screamed, "All right! You win! You can have the Key!"

Arthur paused. The Hour Key already had a drop of his blood, and this whole delay might have been one of Monday's ruses. "And you can be regent. Just give up your Key now."

Monday shot Arthur a dirty look as if he detested no one more in the whole universe, but nonetheless began reciting the incantation that would give Arthur the Key.

Once it was done, and Arthur verbally claimed the rest of the Key, the Hour Key shrank and the Minute Key grew longer and longer, until it was a whole sword.

Arthur raised the First Key towards Mister Monday. "Be healed of your Sloth."

Monday changed, he no longer looked so awe-inspiringly powerful or handsome, and had shrunk a few inches, but there was a warmth in his face absent before.

"As promised," Arthur said, "you can be regent from now on."

"Once again, Sir Arthur," the First Part of the Will said, "Wednesday was one matter entirely different, but Mister Monday is an active conspirator against the Will. We cannot simply brush aside his crimes and pardon him."

"I just did," Arthur said, as if that was that.

"Charity is fine and all," the First Part said, "but it has a limit as well. If we do not punish this perpetrator-"

"Then the other Morrow Days might likewise agree to simply hand over their Keys," Arthur said.

He was interrupted as the door leading to them opened and Monday's Times walked in along with their Commissionaire Sergeants.

Everyone saw Arthur holding both the First and Third Key, and then bowed.

"Okay," Arthur said. "I'm kind of in a hurry, so I'm going to make this short and sweet. I've claimed the First Key, and now I'm going to go claim the Second Key as well. Only thing is, I want the same offer I gave Monday to be given to the other Days, though I doubt any of them will accept."

The First Part of the Will jumped up and down agitatedly. "Really sir, diligence is well and good, but you are needed here in the Lower House in order to fix it. While our campaign against the Days is important, we also need to maintain our authority and try to fix what has been damaged."

Arthur realized that this part of the Will probably did have no idea about what the final outcome was going to be.

"And Monday is no longer afflicted by Sloth," Arthur said. He turned to Monday. "I'll give you the same rules as I gave Wednesday, no interference without asking, and no executing or brutally punishing anyone without my orders, alright?"

"Yes, Lord," Monday said and inclined his head.

"And for that matter," Arthur said, "I think your Noon and Dusk should change places."

Monday frowned but didn't protest.

Arthur wasn't sure if Monday's Dusk had set in chain the motion of events simply to be promoted to be Noon, or because he really did care for Monday, but regardless, Arthur thought that he would appreciate the change. Not to mention he did not like Monday's Noon, now his Dusk.

Arthur then simply picked up both Pieces of the Will, placed the Third Key, now a tiny fork, into his pocket, and using the First Key began tracing out the steps for the Improbable Stair.

We're going into Grim Tuesday's Tower, Arthur thought. Where the Mariner was…

* * *

Superior Saturday was busy looking at some tedious document at the apex of her ever-expanding tower when she was interrupted by a knock. She looked up to see a Denizen mostly covered in coal soot and in rags.

Her first reaction was of disgust. "Who let you in here?"

The Denizen looked scared. "It's me, Pravuil- Majesty, with urgent news."

Superior Saturday frowned, she did remember placing a mole with that name. "Regardless, what was so urgent that you couldn't clean yourself properly before presenting yourself to me?"

"The Pretender has claimed the First Key," Pravuil said.

Saturday, for the first time in several thousand years since that incident with Dr. Scamandros, looked shocked. "It was only three days ago that he took the Third Key."

"Yes, Majesty, and the moment I heard of it, and I assure you I was well-connected even in the Coal Cellar, and I believe this incident had taken place several hours ago," Pravuil said.

"Several hours ago!" Saturday shrieked. "Why haven't I been informed?"

Pravuil stammered and managed to get out, "I'm guessing the Pretender's record is still in the Lower House. I came as soon as I could, but the elevators took several hours so-"

"Shut up," Saturday said, massaging her temples. The Pretender's record was technically supposed to always be with her, but she had loaned it out to Monday. She couldn't kill the Heir, true, but it was useful to check up on his progress, so that she wouldn't have to rely on people like Pravuil for information. Immediately, she began making modifications in her plan, she had to start working faster…

"Where is he now?" she asked.

"He left on the Improbable Stair to take Tuesday's Key," Pravuil answered. "Or so I've heard."

"I do have a loophole to deal with him, nonetheless, I could send my messengers to warn him, though he'd probably not listen…. give me a telephone," she said.

 **A/N: And that's that for now. Thanks for reading, and I always found it odd that Saturday kept a mole in the Coal Cellar and then this mole happened to find Arthur and happened to work for her and get promoted and all.**

 **, thanks for the review. Thing is, stability doesn't really matter for Arthur in this, as the House is going to be consumed by Nothing anyway. He needs to be fast, because the other Days are gunning to get him. As for the Border Sea, I thought it would be relatively safer for Arthur than the Lower House since there's no one there who is actively working against him, except maybe Feverfew, but Feverfew was just a sorcerer and mainly dangerous because Arthur didn't have the Key with him. With the Minute Key though, Arthur could've taken the Third Key comparatively more easily than the First, and used it to get the First later on.**

 **Also, Monday was actually supposed to simply agree to hand Arthur the Key, but then I thought that was a bit out of character so I had him attacked first and let him see that he was losing.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	7. Grim Tuesday & Sir Thursday

**A/N: So we continue seeing where Arthur lands up. , for some reason your name is edited out whenever I try to publish it, and was edited out of the author's note last chapter, so sorry for that.**

"So, an entire island to ourselves," Arthur said.

"Well, us and the Will," the Mariner replied.

Both of them, along with the First and Third Parts of the Will were on the deck of the _Helios_ as they approached the island inside the wordlet.

Arthur had appeared using the stair inside Grim Tuesday's tower, and had turned around to see a surprised man who immediately took out a harpoon that looked like it could hurt perhaps even Arthur, though he loosened up when he saw Arthur had two Keys with him.

Arthur then proceeded to undue the Second Key's bindings on the Mariner, who then set out to go and stab Grim Tuesday using his harpoon, though Arthur asked him to help find the Second Part of the Will first.

Arthur landed in the shallow water and made his way towards the shore. He could have come here, directly, true, but he had read that this worldlet bordered closely to Nothing and may have been too risky.

The Carp exited the water and began swimming in the sand like it would through water, with the Frog hopping about. The Mariner went ahead and Arthur struggled to keep up with him. Finally, he couldn't see him at all.

Then a ladder dropped out of nowhere. "Up here!" came a voice.

Arthur climbed the ladder and saw a wooden platform, upon which was resting a rather large bear. Looking closer, he could see small lines of type swirl in the bear's skin.

Unsure of how to wake it up, Arthur took the First Key and prodded it with it. The bear instantly opened an eye, sniffed the First Key, and got up on all fours.

"The Rightful Heir?" the bear asked.

"Yes," Arthur replied.

The bear frowned. "Why do you have the Third Key then?"

"I took Wednesday's Key first," Arthur said. "It's a bit of a long explanation to say why."

The bear sniffed. "I'm afraid that doesn't do it. I have to practice prudence, otherwise it is very possible that you could be a trick from the Morrow Days."

Arthur frowned. "Does this mean that you doubt that I'm the Rightful Heir?"

"Well, you just saying so isn't worth much, is it?" the bear asked.

Arthur sighed. Here he thought this was going to be easy. He even remembered the Atlas saying that the parts of the Will would be able to sense him- then why couldn't this part?

"I have the Atlas too," Arthur said and waved it in front of the bear. That seemed to perk the bear up.

"And _I_ say that he's the Rightful Heir," the Mariner added, though that didn't seem to matter much to the Will.

Just then, the First Part of the Will appeared. Arthur didn't know how considering the fact that he was sure it couldn't climb a ladder, but decided that as it was being useful for once, he wouldn't ask.

"That's the First Part," Arthur gestured. The First Part hopped on towards the bear, and some lines of type seemed to flow between them. The bear seemed to take everything in, and spent about an hour talking to the Third Part as well.

If it wasn't for the fact that this took up no time, Arthur would have become really frustrated.

The ride back was uneventful, and they appeared again in that strange room with all the glass bottles.

"We now need to find Grim Tuesday," Arthur said. "But he might just run away when he finds out that I've freed the Will."

"He doesn't know you're here," the Mariner said. He took out a telegram paper and began writing something but paused. He then pointed out a large book on his desk. "This is Grim Tuesday's register. Destroy it, and he will immediately come here to check up on what's going on."

"What will destroying it do?" Arthur asked.

"It will free all the indentured workers," the Mariner answered. "And he will immediately come here, perhaps through the weirdway or such. I would've taken it out myself, had it not been Tuesday's orders forbidding me from doing so and my inability to do it without a Key."

Arthur then stabbed the book with the First Key and muttered, "Burn to ashes." The book gave off a sort of noise, like some sort of trapped animal, but then shuddered and flaked off.

"And now what?" Arthur asked.

"We wait," the Mariner said. "It could take the Grim several hours to reach this place, depending on where he is right now."

"Let's hope he isn't too far then," Arthur answered.

Around ten minutes later, there were footsteps outside and the door begun to shake with the iron casting around it melting, and it opened to reveal a very tall Denizen without eyebrows.

He took a second to take in all that was in front of him.

"Captain! Slay these intruders!"

"Dobby is not your slave anymore!" the Mariner shouted. He then frowned, unsure of where that sentence had come from. "I mean, I don't listen to you anymore."

"If you surrender, we'll be lenient," Arthur said.

Grim Tuesday replied by snarling and making a chopping motion towards Arthur. Arthur seemed to be able to see the air move as something moved towards him, but he felt both of his Keys suddenly twist and the sensation was gone.

It was then that Grim Tuesday seemed to take in that he was up against the Mariner, Arthur with two Keys, and three Parts of the Will.

Before Tuesday could do anything, the Second Part of the Will revoked his authority over the Key (which made Arthur wonder why the first part couldn't have just done that) and Arthur claimed it without a problem.

"You'll be cured of your greed, but you won't get your old position back," Arthur said squarely to Tuesday. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Mariner moving. "Wait!" Arthur wasn't sure if it was his voice or the Key's power that made him stop, but he did.

"What is it lad?" the Mariner asked.

"I- well, I won't be able to tend to the Far Reaches like I should," Arthur said. "I don't want to use the Key too much yet. So I need someone to fill in for me, and I think that someone would be you. Are you willing to become my steward and take the Second Key?"

"You have given me a very generous offer," the Mariner said, after which Arthur realized he was going to refuse, "but I must decline. I've never been one to stay within the House for long, and I long ago gave up dwelling in the politics of this place. Nay, sailing without care or worry is what I want."

Arthur let the Mariner leave after that. He sighed, this was going to make things harder, but he didn't really have a choice.

"Okay, so what we need to do now is move to get the Fourth Key," Arthur said. "But before that, someone needs to fix the Far Reaches. They are too much damaged to be left unrepaired for too long. Unlike the Border Sea and the Lower House, I can't just ignore them for a few months while I settle other stuff, because it is just too unstable."

"You appear to be misinformed," the Second Part said. "Nothing is not strong enough to impinge on the Architect's creation."

"I disagree," the First and Third Parts said simultaneously.

"Okay, so you don't know anything," Arthur said to the Second Part. "So, since the Mariner has refused, the First Part of the Will is going to be my regent here. First Part, I need you to fill up the Pit, and make sure none of Saturday's minions go down there and mess things up. And oh yeah, tell the Grotesques that they can have their jobs back and meld them into one."

"Agreed sir," the First Part said.

"As for the Second and Third Part, they'll come with me to take down Sir Thursdday," Arthur said.

"But we will be needed here, and also we should really fuse by now," the Second Part said.

"You will," Arthur said. "Eventually. Until then we need to split up for now."

Truth was, Arthur had to make sure that something was done about the Far Reaches, especially seeing as Saturday planned to use it to dissolve the rest of the House. For that, Diligence seemed far better than either Prudence or Faith.

Arthur recited the incantation that the Will told him, and then handed over the Second Key to the Frog which then morphed until it looked like something resembling a human, though it- she was seven foot tall and radiated power more than other superior Denizens.

Arthur gave her- Dame Primus, as she began calling herself, though Arthur vaguely wondered what she would call herself if the Heir was a girl- instructions on safety measures and the such to protect the Far Reaches from being swamped in Nothing, and at the very least prevent its spread to other parts of the House.

Once that was done, Arthur took the First Key and began sketching the steps of the Improbable Stair. He scooped up the Third Part of the Will under his arm, and the Second Part of the Will tugged on the coat that Arthur had worn in order to enter the star, and Arthur stepped up onto the Stair.

It was a lot more awkward than last time, seeing as there was a huge bear behind him and he was carrying a fish bowl under one arm. Not to mention that there seemed to be something different about the Stair this time as if parts of it had been eroded in places. None of the holes were too big to fall through, but they did look big enough for him to get his foot stuck in, so he had to be extra careful and slow.

The first landing was on some planet, though Arthur guessed it wasn't Earth from how the sky looked as there was _something_ that was glowing bright green. It looked like they had landed on an island, and the sea seemed to stretch forever from where they were. Arthur once again began tracing the steps, and they got on again. This time though, the Stair seemed to be normal. They had only one other stop, a jungle somewhere that had lots of crimson red flowers.

After that, they reached Sir Thursday's bedroom, which was where Arthur had wanted to land because this meant that they could assault him while he was alone. Arthur peeked out the window to see it was about to get dark, which meant that Sir Thursday would probably be coming soon.

That also meant that they needed a place to hide, unfortunately the only place that Arthur could think of was under the bed, which made him wonder if the Denizen's lack of creativity was contagious, but the truth was that there really was no better place to hide.

An hour later, though it felt a lot longer to Arthur, they heard voices outside and someone was shouting at someone else. Then, the door swung open and someone entered the room and began pacing about in it. He wasn't alone, and Arthur heard the voices.

"Any other news, Dusk?" someone asked.

"Yes, sir," another Denizen replied whose voice seemed to remind Arthur of the night, which made him guess that this was Thursday's Dusk, and that meant that the other Denizen was probably Thursday. "We have gotten word from Superior Saturday-" Sir Thursday snorted in disgust at this point "and she says that this… Rightful Heir who calls himself Lord Arthur has claimed both the First and Third Key."

"I assume she'll expect me to interfere soon," Thursday answered. "Ah, well, I'll see to that when it happens. You're dismissed."

"Yes sir!" came a shout that was certainly not someone's indoor voice.

There were footsteps and the door closed. Throughout the entire time that Sir Thursday took while pacing around the room, Arthur was sure that he would check under the bed at least once, or that something would give away their position, either the gentle _swish_ of the Carp's swimming or the breathing of the Second Part.

Neither of this happened, though there was suddenly a weight on the bed and it creaked. Around five minutes later, Arthur dared to whisper, "Come on… let's get a move on."

They tried to exit the underside of the bed as stealthily as they could, though with a bear that wasn't really that possible.

Sir Thursday, as it turned out, hadn't been sleeping and had been staring at the ceiling, and took only a second to turn his head and notice the intruders.

He immediately opened his mouth to scream, but the Third Part of the Will jumped from its bowl and into his mouth, drowning out the noise.

"Keys! Lock the door!" Arthur said.

There was a flash of light around the door for an instant. Arthur's eyes scanned the room for the Key, but it wasn't there. His eyes turned to Sir Thursday's badge, and he recognized it.

Arthur grabbed the badge, but it wasn't simply a badge when he clasped it. It turned into a large, double-handed sword with a snake wound round its hilt- the Fourth Part of the Will.

Sir Thursday tried to get up, but the Second Part of the Will essentially just sat down on him and that seemed to prevent him from moving quite well.

 _Arthur!_ A voice called into Arthur's head. _I'm trapped on this sword!_

"I know," Arthur said. "I do read the Atlas, you know." He then took both of his Keys in each hand, and said, "Keys! Release the Fourth Part of the Will!"

The snake unwound itself and turned alive, and decided that biting Sir Thursday in the neck was the best way to use its newfound freedom. There were knocks on the door, clearly something they had done had alerted the guards outside.

Arthur began speaking the incantation that would hand him the Fourth Key. Sir Thursday started struggling even more, but he seemed to be unable to displace the Second Part of the Will, or get the Third Part out of his mouth.

As the incantation ended, the sword turned into a slender rapier, and Arthur knew that he had won. He called off both parts of the Will.

Instantly, Sir Thursday attempted to leap at Arthur, though Arthur simply said, "Stop!" and he froze. Arthur then went and opened the door to see a Denizen in a grey military uniform; who he guessed was Dusk.

Dusk took a good luck at the room and seemed to be at a loss for words. "What…. What just happened here?"

"I've claimed the Fourth Key," Arthur said. "Didn't you feel it? Mister Monday's times did."

"No," Dusk said.

Arthur turned to Sir Thursday and saw that he was still struggling. He tried healing him of his rage to see if that would calm him down, and it did, though he still looked rebellious.

"Call a meeting," Arthur said. "Involving everyone important and tell them that I want to address them."

"Yes sir," Dusk said, though he looked confused. "I'll call everyone to Sir Thursday's operations room. You can go address them there."

"Traitor!" Sir Thursday shouted. Apparently Arthur hadn't forced him to keep quiet. "That Key alone is not enough to command this army!"

Arthur sighed. "Actually…. The Key is pretty much everything to command this army. I don't think you know how it works or something like that."

Sir Thursday still looked mutinous, and the Second Part of the Will decided to bite him on the back of his neck. He remained still after that. "No need to worry about this one, Sir."

Fifteen minutes later, Arthur was in the operations room, addressing Thursday's Times as well as some other officers.

"I'm in charge of the Great Maze now," Arthur said. "But, I won't be here for long. Both Friday's and Saturday's Keys have to be claimed. Saturday will be waiting for Friday to fall before making her ultimate moves towards destroying the House."

Noon frowned. "But she is a Trustee. Why would she want to destroy the House? Why would anyone?"

'I'm going to,' Arthur thought. "She wants to destroy the House, or at least parts of it, so she can reach the Gardens. But she won't start until the Fifth Key is claimed. So, we need to attack both Friday and Saturday simultaneously."

"Before that Sir," the Fourth Part of the Will said, "I would say that we need to set up a council so that we may hold Sir Thursday on trial for his crimes."

"We can do that later," Arthur said.

"Delayed justice is denied justice," the Fourth Part answered.

"In that case I pardon the Trustees up till Thursday, and say that no one will harm them," Arthur answered. "And more importantly, a regent is needed while I'll be gone. I choose the Second and Third Parts of the Will to fill in my place, though I will be taking the Fourth Key."

Arthur mainly choose Prudence and Faith because the Great Maze, unlike the Far Reaches, was pretty much still functional and having those two together meant that they'd probably really do nothing at all. He didn't want the Trustees killed, so he was hoping that pardon would stop them from doing anything, and also that both Monday and Wednesday, being regents, wouldn't be assassinated so easily. The Fourth Part though, Arthur had to make sure that it would always be under his watch. He had to take it along with him.

The Second and Third Parts then merged to form another identical Dame Primus- or Secondus, or whatever. Arthur glanced at the Fourth Part of the Will. He yawned. Honestly, he wanted to continue and go for the Fifth Part, but he was tired, and he didn't want to give Saturday too much time to act.

* * *

Superior Saturday was working on the small shirt pocket in front of her. True, there were other sorcerers in the Upper House capable of altering it like she wanted, but she wanted to take no chances with this.

She was interrupted by a knock on the door-frame of her room. Her room didn't really have any doors, it was open on all sides and would be closed only in case a storm struck, which hadn't in the last ten thousand years, but Saturday wanted to keep a back-up plan in case it did.

Saturday always had a back-up plan.

She looked up, irritated, to see two of her superior officers, ones that she had sent to the Far Reaches.

The two of them bowed and entered after Saturday uttered her approval.

"We bring bad news, Majesty," one of the said. "Grim Tuesday has fallen. We were on the way to the Far Reaches when the news reached us and we turned to inform you."

Saturday exhaled. The Cocigrue would have to wait for now. "I see In that case we will simply have to ask Thursday to recruit the boy."

Just then, a package arrived for her, from the Lower House, containing but a single record. Saturday snatched it up, and saw that it was of one Arthur Penhalingon, Lord of the Lower House, Master of the Far Reaches, Duke of the Border Sea, and Overlord of the Great Maze.

The last part nearly made her heart stop. She was sure that something was wrong, but the records were never wrong.

Just then, Pravuil burst in, dressed up like an officer now, curtsied, apologized for bursting in, and said, "The Great Maze has fallen!"

"I know," was Saturday's curt reply. "How- _why_ is he moving so fast? Is he on a sugar rush or something? Why can't he be like other mortal teenagers and take a pizza break or something? Doesn't he need to see to the rest of the House or something?"

No one answered, but Saturday growled. "If he keeps his current rate of two-no, three Keys a day…"

"He'll have your Key before tomorrow afternoon," Pravuil said but cowered immediately under Saturday's glare.

"There's no time then!" she shouted. "None of my schemes will work! Not the Cocigrue! We can't even destroy the House fast enough at this point. No draft either, and it is not yet even Saturday on Earth!"

Her minions were speechless. Saturday growled, "Sorcerers! Train batches of sorcerers to maintain wards against the Fifth Key and the Stair! Train them to look for sorcery! We must delay him somehow."

Saturday began doing the math. It would take at least a week for her plan to succeed completely, or at least, for starting the destruction of the House so that the Pretender, or the Will, could not stop it.

 **A/N: Aquarius kills Foz, was that a pun for the Carp swallowing Monday's head? And so, Arthur goes through the Trustees like a stack of dominoes.**

 **Anyway, if you're disappointed, don't worry, the part with Sunday should be longer.**

 **For that matter, I'd just like some help here: In** _ **Superior Saturday**_ **Dame Primus split into Dame Quarto and Dame Septum, except I never understood why (there was something said about one and three, and five and two, but then where did the fourth go?) so if anyone got what that meant, I'd like to know.**

 **Also, all this time I assumed that since Sir Thursday didn't carry his Key when he first met Arthur and it was somewhere in Noon's office, but I read the book again carefully and noticed that apparently he had a badge with the sword on it first, and later on the badge was gone, so that meant that the badge had the Key on it? It did always seem weird that he wouldn't carry his Key around with him.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, and review if you liked.**


	8. Lady Friday & Superior Saturday

**A/N: And so we return to see what Arthur is doing.**

 _If a man kills one person, he's a murderer…_

 _If a man kills a million people, he's a conqueror…_

 _If a man kills everyone, he's a god…_

Arthur tried to get a good night's sleep, but he found himself getting restless. Sir Thursday's bed was comfy, but Arthur's mind wouldn't stop working.

Truth be told, he was quite scared at what was going to happen. He had taken charge of this whole situation like he knew what was going on, but he was just a boy, and there was the entire universe resting on his shoulders.

He couldn't shake the feeling that he was moving too slow. Every moment he tarried, was a moment that the Morrow Days could move to exact revenge on Earth, or try something that would destroy the House, or the Will could try something traitorous like executing the Morrow Days…

He finally fell asleep after hours of tossing and turning, and didn't feel completely refreshed in the morning. He was so sleepy he didn't wonder why he was shaved in the morning, and that too with the back of a razor. He decided to go with a Borderer Uniform, though he was honestly too tired to really think about it.

He checked to make sure that he still had the Fourth Key with him, and that the Fourth Part of the Will was still there. He thought that the Second and Third pieces would refrain from killing Thursday… but he wasn't sure. Same thing with Tuesday. His pardon should have protected them, as long as the Fourth Part wasn't free to move about on its own. He considered what to do with the Trustees…. perhaps he would relocate all of them to the Border Sea. And as for his family… Arthur wasn't really sure what to do with them. He wished he understood the time relatives between the House and Earth better, so he'd know when the Days could strike back home.

Once he was refreshed and had breakfast, he pushed aside all those thoughts and began sketching the steps of the Improbable Stair using the Fourth Key. All the Denizens in the room paused as he got on, which was disorienting slightly, but Arthur tried to concentrate hardest.

There were no abnormal stops this time, perhaps because he was now in possession of Three Keys, or was just lucky.

However, Arthur didn't know that as he emerged in complete darkness.

Complete, total, absolute darkness, with no idea what was around him.

He panicked, and shouted, "Light!" holding the Keys a few inches from his face, which was a huge mistake, given that they were now the brightest things in the whole universe.

"Gah!" Arthur shouted. Another creature in the place uttered the same shriek. "Dim!" Arthur shouted.

In around five minutes, Arthur's vision returned to normal. He was thankful he was in the House and had his Keys, otherwise it wouldn't have come back at all.

In front of him was what looked like a fox… and a bat… and the tail of a snake. It looked, in short, like nothing that should have existed.

"Are you Part Five of the Will?" Arthur asked.

"Yes," it replied. The Fourth Part left Arthur's sword and crawled away across the numerous stones in the immense cavern that Arthur could now see.

"If you really, truly are the Heir," it said, "I would request that you break this chain around my neck."

Arthur frowned. "Can't you sense that I am? The other parts could, except the Second. And you can't talk telepathically either?"

"I have my talents in other areas," it said.

Arthur took a good luck at the chain, and it crumbled to dust at his touch.

"Nice," the Fifth Part said and shrunk until it was about the size of a pumpkin, and climbed onto Arthur's shoulder.

"Is the Fifth Key in the Middle House?" Arthur asked.

"Now, that's something I can help you with," it replied. "No, it isn't."

Arthur took out the Atlas and asked his question, and then shut it after he had seen the drawing. "We're going to Friday's retreat then. We're going on the Improbable Stair again."

He began sketching the steps to the Stairs another time.

This time, their stop was at an arcade somewhere, and the other stop in the Great Maze somewhere.

Finally, they ended up in the retreat, where Friday was currently prepping mortals to be experienced.

The whole thing was anti-climatic. Arthur said the incantation and got the Key back. There was no real resistance from her after he cured her of her vice, and neither from her Denizens. Her Noon and Dusk seemed to take the change of power like clockwork, and Arthur sent all the humans back to where they were, given that the portal back was still open, as well as a portal back to her Scriptorium.

At the Scriptorium, Friday's Dawn joined them.

"Is there a way into the Upper House?" Arthur asked. He had searched the Atlas, so he already knew the answer, but he wanted confirmation.

"Not that we know of," Dawn replied. "Though I must request that we first turn our attentions to the problem that the Middle House is currently in. The weather as well as the diurnal cycles are currently out of sync, and there are many other problems with-"

Arthur cut him off. "Those things will have to wait. Saturday isn't going to waste any time now trying to get me through any and all means possible. We _have_ to get to her first." He yawned but snapped out of it. "So, she'll probably have already shut down all the elevators as well as the telephones, and I know from the Atlas that she's set up wards against the Improbable Stair and Fifth Key. I could possibly counter the wards against the Stair now that I have four Keys, but the risk of using the Stair is high enough already. From that, I've deduced that there's really only one way into the Upper House fast enough to suit me: we bore a hole between the bulwark of the Middle and Upper House."

All of Friday's Times gasped, but Dawn said, "On that note… I do have an idea. Friday was making a… Nothing-laced bomb in order to use against you- or Saturday, by disguising it as the Fifth Key and getting both of you to compete for it. The bomb is ready, and after dissolving a good part of the House, will eventually collapse in on itself, and I believe that with your Keys you could control it if it got out of hand."

Arthur thought about it. "I don't have a better idea. Set up the bomb."

"It has to be done using the Fifth Key," Dawn replied.

Dawn instructed Arthur on how to set it up, and Arthur took a pair of wings and attached it to the roof of the Middle House, which was nothing but the underside of the Upper House. To detonate it, he took a firecracker and launched it at the small, almost realistic model of the Fifth Key. It took him three attempts to get it, and when he did, a hole at least ten feet in diameter appeared instantly.

Arthur wondered if the Keys would have protected him if Friday's plan had worked. The Fifth Part of the Will said, "That is a hole into the void itself. It could endanger all of Creation."

"Lady Friday was sure it would work and not doom all of Creation," Dawn said, though he didn't sound absolutely sure. It seemed that Dawn didn't have much faith in Lady Friday's judgment, and Arthur couldn't really say that he wondered why.

The Nothing blast was supposed to be directed upwards, but Nothing, of course, was difficult to control, and the Nothing made small drops, falling like rain towards them, which Arthur had to stop using the Keys.

Just as he was about to use the Keys to stop it, thinking that Friday had gotten something wrong, the void stopped moving, and then seemingly disappeared. There were still stray drops of Nothing though which Arthur returned to the Void using his Keys.

"We'll be off then," Arthur said as he flexed his wings and took off. It was his first time flying, and he found himself sidetracking occasionally, but otherwise it was exhilarating and frightening at the same time.

The hole was about half a mile wide in diameter, and twice as deep. It still wasn't enough to completely destroy the bulwark between the Upper and Middle House, but it was a start.

Arthur stared at where the Nothing had ceded, and using the Fifth Key began imagining fire, flames so hot that they would punch through the stone and steel framework like it was made up of butter. He felt the other Keys lend it their power, and a ray of unnaturally bright flames emanated from the Fifth Key and began making a hole large enough for Arthur and about maybe a dozen others. He made sure to direct the melted substance upwards so it wouldn't fall back towards the Middle House.

At one point, he paused, uncertain of why. He then heard something rumbling above, and he recognized it as water flowing.

 _The Will is in the rain_ , he remembered. He didn't want to puncture whatever was up there and end up sending the water into the Middle House, so he began excavating at the sides and stopped when the sound of the water coming became dull.

He emerged to see the entire area crowded by steam, and the dull noises of engines above. The reservoir in front of him was almost full, and a stream of water was still coming there.

Arthur reached out and put a hand in the water and called out to the Will, asking it to regenerate. The water began to shift and shimmer, and letters began forming and combining. Arthur touched his Keys and said, "Keys, help the Will regenerate."

"Is that wise?" the Fifth Part asked. "You'll end up alerting Saturday."

"She'll know anyway when the Will starts forming," Arthur said. "And like I said before, we either enter silently, or we make as much noise as possible."

The water then began foaming as water was drawn from above, and a wing quickly formed, and then a beak and the rest of its head.

* * *

Pearson was what you could call an upper-middle class sorcerer. He was high ranking enough to be in charge of a batch of a hundred sorcerers assigned for looking for sorcery and so enjoyed better privileges than the others, and yet low enough to not really be in trouble of Saturday punishing him when stuff went downhill.

Now, this might seem like a nice and comfortable position, but to no one in Saturday's realm was anything enough. No, everyone had their sights on climbing higher, by hook or by crook.

Today though, Pearson wasn't expecting anything to come up that could promote him. He was just checking for sorcery, along with the thousands of other Denizens that Saturday had employed for the task.

"Hey!" one of the Denizens said. "I'm seeing some activity from down below."

Pearson got up from his desk and moved towards the Denizen. "It's probably one of those rats."

But, the signals seemed to be very weak, as if there was a large barrier between whoever was using the sorcery and where they were. And then, for a moment, it all but vanished.

Pearson reached to grab a cup of tea, and then immediately dropped it. He didn't even need an instrument to measure this kind of sorcery.

Every single sorcerer on the floor got up, and the floors above and below as well.

"Oh my Architect…." Pearson said as he realized just what he was sensing.

* * *

Superior Saturday had been working non-stop for the past few days. She had to outwit the Rightful Heir- the Pretender, and it was not yet Saturday on earth to her chagrin. She had attempted to send agents to the Far Reaches to cause its destruction, but the First Part of the Will seemed to have anticipated this somehow and had intercepted most of her agents. One of them had succeeded and there had been a break in the Far Reaches, but had been plugged before it could spread to the rest of the House.

"Any news on the Pretender, Pravuil?" Saturday asked as she paused, taking a moment to admire the Nothing spike she had made. It would need only a few modifications and then her thoughts were interrupted by a titanic wave of sorcery emanating somewhere from far below.

Pravuil gulped. "Majesty, he's here."

Saturday's eyes widened. "He's not even trying to _hide_ or anything." She then looked up, where her armor and other sorcerous weapons were hidden. "Call all of our sorcerers to fight. We need to apprehend him as quickly as possible."

Her mind immediately went to the sorcerous shackles she had, a replica of the ones also owned by Sunday. There was also her silver net too… yes, she could already see herself winning.

* * *

The Sixth Part of the Will was finished forming.

"Is Saturday at the top of the tower with her Key?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, for now," the Raven said. Arthur looked up, noticing that the gentle noise of the rain had suddenly stopped.

"We need to get up, and fast," Arthur said. "Her sorcerer minions won't waste time in trying to get to us."

"So we fly?" the Sixth Part asked.

"I have another idea," Arthur said with a crazy grin. He pointed the Fifth Key downwards, and drawing upon the power of all the Keys, gave one simple command.

"Up."

* * *

Saturday had found the chains when she noticed it. The sorcery was impossible not to notice, and by now every single person in the Upper House would have known, but the thing was that Saturday thought it had disappeared for an instant.

And then she realized that it was just somewhere else. And then somewhere else.

It- he, was moving. Saturday did a few quick mental calculations to try and gauge how fast he was moving.

"Oh my Architect," she said.

* * *

The Keys had emitted strong pressure waves the moment that Arthur had given the command, and he found himself and the other parts of the Will which had clung to him, rocketing upwards with such a speed that he saw Denizens on the floors they pass be knocked down by the impact.

He hoped no one had been knocked off the tower and killed, but the thing was that somehow, that didn't seem to matter much to him anymore. _They'll probably be just Piper's Children if they're standing too close to the edge and not wearing wings anyway, and who cares about them?_

Arthur shook his head, unsure of where these thoughts were coming from. He almost smacked his head in the tower as a result of losing his concentration over where they were going, which would have decapitated him at those speeds.

* * *

"What do we do now, Majesty?" Pravuil asked as he sprinted all the way up the stairs to join Saturday. He had also realized how fast the Pretender was moving.

Saturday had been in the process of donning her armor, but then stopped. She realized that she had, for the time being, been outsmarted. A wave of rage struck her, and she found herself smashing various instruments before she calmed down and realized what she needed to do.

"I don't know what you're going to do," Saturday said. "But I do know what I have to do."

She then began tracing out the steps to the Improbable Stair. She had to go somewhere, anywhere, away from the Pretender. Perhaps even the Incomparable Gardens for the time being, yes, she would be safe there, and if he went there Sunday- the fool, would be able to handle him, though it sickened her to have to rely on him for anything.

She put a step on the stair and there was a cry from above her, and she felt something knock her off. She looked up to see what looked like a Grease Monkey, though better clothed, with wings and a raven… and something else on his shoulders.

Pravuil opened his umbrella, but there was a silver streak that descended from above and struck him. He screamed, collapsed, and did not get up after that.

As for the Pretender, he pointed his Keys at her and said, "Keys! Negate the powers of the Sixth Key and um, whatever sorcery Saturday will do, and um, thanks."

Saturday snorted. Was he really so inexperienced to be thanking his Keys? She did not bother about this though as she readied the Sixth Key, though she found that it was difficult to move, as if it were heavier than usual.

The Pretender then began calling the incantation that would give him the Sixth Key, but Saturday did have a backup plan, like always.

The boy was standing just under the giant spike of Nothing she had been forming, and while the Keys would protect him to some extent, if they were directed against her Key their powers would be weakened, and Nothing was always touchy. Plus, this boy was probably still mortal, and she only needed to hit a vital part like his heart to kill him.

With an immense amount of effort, Saturday opened her mouth to launch the spike upwards.

And then, she took a look at the Pretender's face.

A shiver ran down her spine, and his head seemed to grow bigger, and bigger, until it was the size of a house, and she saw him open his mouth. Trillions of small things started entering it, and were getting crushed by his teeth.

She took a moment for her eyes to adjust that they were Denizens, and humans, and other creatures of Creation that were entering his mouth by the billions for the sole purpose of their destruction. She caught a glimpse of her sorcerers, and even… herself enter oblivion.

She was so entranced by this she didn't even notice as the Sixth Key left her hand.

"Key, cure Saturday of her vice and bind her," Arthur said. He then turned to Pravuil, who didn't seem to have been killed, merely knocked out.

"Okay, so this is how this is going to work," Arthur said. "You're going to go down there and tell everyone that I'm in charge now. Also, I want no one- not even the Will to go up beyond the last fifty floors of this tower, without my express permission."

"Why?" the Raven croaked.

"I have business to take care of," Arthur said and told everyone to move down and get the word around, except for Saturday. He then made his way towards the spike made up of Nothing, an idea already forming in his mind on how to use it.

 **A/N: Aquarius kills Foz, I think you may be right, but it sounds out that he forgot to add the Fourth Part. Not to mention that Scamadros also says, "Self-aggrandizement. Trying to make the sum of the whole greater, I suppose." That really didn't make any sense to me, nor did the fact that Arthur mention that he couldn't enter the Upper House with the Improbable Stair without having visited it there before (though apparently he couldn't anyway due to sorcerous resistances against the Keys, though I don't know how well they'd last).**

 **And, for now, we're not going to be going to Sunday directly, but rather Arthur will be trying to deal with matters for now.**

 **Thanks for reading, and review if you liked.**


	9. The Rightful Heir & The Morrow Days

**A/N: Aquarius kills Foz, thanks for the review, though sorry to say, Arthur will** _ **not**_ **be fixing up the House, or spending some real high-quality time on it (it's all about to go to Nothing anyway). No, he's going to continue and strike against Lord Sunday pretty soon.**

 **As for the Geography, I never really thought about it until you mentioned it… and I agree that it doesn't make sense in some ways.**

 **For one, I'm guessing that the Far Reaches make up the 'basement' of the House since it borders pretty close to Nothing. The Lower House is somewhere above it, Middle House above that, Upper House above that, and the Incomparable Gardens above that. I'm guessing that the Incomparable Gardens make up the 'roof' of the House given that Saturday had to climb up to reach it from the Upper House.**

 **That still leaves the Border Sea and the Great Maze though, and one has to wonder where they would be in House locations with respect to the other areas, and how large they are with respect to the other areas. A sort of clue is given though in Sir Thursday where it says that the Westernmost Border is close to Nothing, and the others aren't mentioned, so if the rest border close to something as they should if we speak of a normal house, then that means they border other parts of the House.**

 **So, the Far Reaches would impinge on Nothing being at the basement. As for the Border Sea, I think the explanation was that the Border Sea's waters served as a sort of portal to everywhere, including the Secondary Realm (which was how Feverfew and his pirates got in) and sometimes into Nothing, so that Nothing began to mix in with the Sea.**

 **However, it is mentioned that the Great Maze had a line of mountains which separated it from the Nothing at the side, which means that the Great Maze was somewhere at the side of the House.**

 **However, if we assume that the Nothing is the foundation of the House like the ground would be of a normal house, and the House was built** _ **on top of it,**_ **then it would not make sense for the Great Maze to border Nothing unless it was part of the floor. This isn't the case though as the Lower House and Border Sea are somewhere below it, as the elevator to the Great Maze came from those regions from somewhere below, I believe, as mentioned in _Sir Thursday_ or _Lady Friday_ (I can't remember). **

**So, the only conclusion I can gather must be that the Nothing isn't like a normal foundation which is only at the bottom of the House, but rather that it completely envelopes and surrounds the House on all sides. It is mentioned that the other realms in the House also have Denizens which patrol their borders and protect them from Nithlings, again, for this to happen we would have to either assume that all the realms are located at the floor of the House (which can't be true since we know that some of them are above the others) or that Nothing surrounds the entire House. Interestingly, that means that Nothing would also be over the Incomparable Gardens constantly, and at the end of _Lord Sunday_ it is mentioned that Nothing came from above, so I guess that confirms it?**

 **As an analogy, that means that the sand on which a normal house is built is the Nothing, and we can sort of see the house sinking into the sand into which it was so that the sand completely covers it.**

 **Of course, we could just be looking too deeply into it and Garth Nix never really thought about it either. So sorry for this long author's note.**

Arthur took one good look at the huge Nothing spike, which he had deemed to transport to the top of the tower himself. Saturday was chained to one of the beams and Arthur used his Keys to ensure that she couldn't use any sorcery.

The parts of the Will had left, gone to fuse with the others, though it would take several hours for them to get there.

Those several hours were very important to Arthur. He flexed his hands. He wished he still had the Second Key, it would be more suited for the task he was about to undertake, but was going to have to make do with the others.

He raised the Keys, from which he could now literally feel the energy flowing to him, strengthening him, changing him, and giving him emotions like short patience and contempt that were completely new to him.

He tried to concentrate, though he was sure that he wouldn't fail, he had never tried to make anything out of Nothing, and reading it up in the Atlas wasn't the same as doing the same thing.

It took him little over an hour to finish his work, and another hour more before he was satisfied that it would be functional.

He then called for a phone, which appeared in the air right next to him. He put his mouth near the speaker, "I would like to speak to Wednesday, current regent of the Border Sea."

A voice on the side said, "All telephone communications have been banned on-"

"I'm Lord Arthur, Lord of the Upper House!" Arthur all but shouted. He had to restrain himself from adding, "you imbecile!" at the end.

"Right, right," came a voice at the other end.

Surprisingly, for some reason, Arthur found that Saturday's denizens had not completely abandoned her once he had taken the Key, and there had been some active resistance against him which he quashed quickly by using the Key to inform everyone that he was in charge. He also fired all of her Times, and the positions were currently open. He was considering placing Scamandros in one of them but hadn't gotten around to it yet. This was all very strange since Arthur was sure that Saturday felt no loyalty to her sorcerers in return in any way.

There was crackling for some time, and then a voice answered, "Yes, Lord Arthur?"

Wednesday's voice was no longer as loud and as commanding when she had been Duchess, but still carried a shade of power.

"I need you to do something for me," Arthur said. "I've defeated Saturday, but the Will is not going to let the Trustees this easily even if I've issued a pardon. So, I need you to come up here to the Upper House, I'm assigning a special elevator for you, and to also bring Friday and Thursday as you come up."

Arthur took a piece of paper with his writing and seals on it, and shoved it through the phone. "That should give you all the authorization you need."

He then placed the next phone call to Monday, and gave him similar instructions and told him to bring Tuesday as well.

Once he was done with this, he called one of Saturay's ex-officers whom he guessed would know what he was doing, and asked for someone who knew a lot about the relations of time between the House and Earth.

Fifteen minutes later, a Denizen by the name of Falmouth who had unnatural pink hair greeted him. She was currently an advanced student and was writing a thesis on the very topic that interested him. The only thing that made her stand out was that she was wearing about dozen very odd-looking watches on her left arm.

Falmouth looked excited that she had been called for something, but kept nervously glancing at Saturday who was still chained up.

"So, Foulmouth-"

"Falmouth sir," Falmouth interrupted Arthur, which irritated him.

"Right, Falmouth," Arthur said. "What's the current date and time on Earth?"

Falmouth glanced at one of the watches on her arm and said, "It is currently Friday, 10:32 A.M. in your realm, Sir Athur."

Arthur then frowned. "Wait a minute, time is different depending on time zones right, so how does that work? Do the Trustees get segments of Earth as the time changes?" Arthur had to say that

"Actually," Falmouth said, "that is based on a standard set time. Earlier in human time, it was the time of Rome, later on it switched over to the Rose Line, and then Greenwich. It changed based on where we perceived the center of human civilization and based on humans themselves. However, when you received the Lesser Key from Monday, you essentially became the most important resident of Earth, and we began keeping time based on your home town."

Arthur remembered how Noon had disappeared one it was one. "So, a Noon could come on a different part of the globe, and it could actually be dusk or dawn there or some time in-between."

"Yes," Falmouth said.

"So, say I want to keep it on Friday only," Arthur said. He didn't want the day to switch over to Sunday, so that Sunday couldn't take his family hostage. "How could I do that?"

Falmouth stroked her chin. "That would be a simple matter of passing some orders, though I must note that if those orders clashed from the other days, it could lead to a mess. As it stands, no one Day can really freeze time on Earth, only slow it down severely. This is normally prohibited as interference, and the Days never really had any reason to do something like that so…"

"Well, I want it to be Friday for as long as possible," Arthur said. "And do the same to Saturday. Could Sunday somehow countermand my orders and make time run swifter?"

Falmouth shook her head. "The Accord forbids that as interference. However, there are things that could relatively accelerate the temporal gap, things beyond our control, like explosions of Nothing, for example."

Arthur waved his hand, he had heard enough. "Okay, just make sure that it is Friday for as long as possible right now."

Falmouth bowed and left.

Several hours later, during which Arthur did pass some notices on to the rest of the Upper House, like banning washing between the ears, and calling everyone important for a meeting in the Upper House, and then making preparations for that meeting.

A few hours later, he was interrupted by the gentle _ding!_ which indicated an elevator had arrived. He turned around to see a huge room, in which there was Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thursday was in handcuffs and looked none too pleased about being there, though Friday wasn't restrained.

Monday and Tuesday arrived too within short order.

Arthur showed them what he had made. "This is your new home."

It didn't look very appealing from the outside. It looked like a warehouse but was the size of a minivan, and there were three indentations in the door, as Arthur had made it so that three Keys were needed at the very least to open it, and there were no windows.

Arthur let Saturday free, but didn't remove the sorcerous bounds on her preventing her from doing sorcery, or any other number of treacherous deeds.

Arthur opened the door to show a place far bigger than that on the outside. There was a grand hallway with tiled marble, a fountain in the middle, and the roof contained a screen showing a beautiful sky streaked with small clouds. There was gentle music playing, a tune that Arthur couldn't remember where it was from but was cheerful and relaxing.

The sky wasn't real of course, but it looked just like it back on Earth, except even better. There were hallways that lead out to different rooms, including a dining hall.

"You all have your separate rooms," Arthur said while pointing them out. "They can only work for you. And I've guarded this place with every spell I know. It'll move according to safety, and the Improbable Stair won't work here. And there a bunch of other things too, so don't try anything like killing each other. And there will be guards."

"Guards?" Tuesday asked and frowned. He couldn't see anyone.

Arthur smiled, not an innocent smile, but a I-just-put-a-whoppee-cushion-under-your-chair kind of smile and said, "You probably won't see them. I made them myself." He turned to gaze at a small turquoise turtle, a ruby cat, and a crystal elephant that were on display on various places in the room, apparently all lifeless.

Friday and Tuesday seemed to take it like it was no big deal. Wednesday frowned, clearly she felt that she was being imprisoned, though Arthur reasoned that it was more of a 'Safe House' than a prison, but neither she nor Monday protested.

Thursday tried to make a grab for Arthur but was restrained by Monday and Wednesday. Saturday wasn't one to give up so easily.

"We could negotiate," she pleaded.

"Yes, but you usually negotiate from a higher ground, and that time has passed," Arthur said. "You have nothing useful to give me."

"You don't understand-" Saturday said. "About what we did, what the Will-"

"I know the Will is going to destroy the universe," Arthur said. "I knew it from the very beginning."

That surprised the Days except Wednesday.

"Then- why are you helping it? _Everyone_ will die!" Saturday screamed.

Arthur smiled. "Not everyone. One person will live."

"What-How could you even-"

Arthur cut her off and made to exit the place after locking it. Once he was done, he called for a telephone once again and told the operator that he wanted to speak with Lord Sunday.

The operator didn't bother telling him off this time.

"Who is this?" a voice said. It emanated power, though it didn't ring around the place like the person was screaming.

"I think you should know by now," Arthur said.

"Saturday?" the voice asked.

"Lord Arthur, the Rightful Heir," Arthur said.

"Ah. Are you calling me to negotiate the terms of your surrender?"

"Actually, to negotiate the terms of _your_ surrender," Arthur replied. There was laughing from the other end.

"Ah yes. Why should I hand over my Key, when I know very well that Dame Primus will kill me afterwards. And for that matter, the Keys are too great a burden for a mortal anyone. Best you hand them over to me."

"So that you can mismanage the House even more?"

"Do not talk about things you don't understand!"

"Like how the Will is going to destroy the House? That's an old story to me," Arthur replied.

"You know?" Sunday growled. "And yet knowing the consequences, you would still go on your course? You're a monster, a greedy, ambitious, crazy mortal with no concern for other people."

"Oh, so _you're_ the concerned person now?" Arthur asked. "You've mismanaged the House for years. And you are completely incapable of handling it. Look at the House, the Far Reaches have reached a state than in a few hundred more years, they would be destroyed, taking the Lower House with it. And the Border Sea no longer has Wednesday, just what did you brilliantly plan to do with that? Face it, the House doesn't need more Morrow Days, it needs an Architect."

"And I suppose you'll offer me my position?" Sunday asked. "It means quite little if I'm dead, you do realize?"

"I know," Arthur said. "I knew that the House had to be destroyed from reading the Atlas before I even came here." Arthur took the tone of someone with a PhD in Mathematics explaining to an overzealous toddler than one plus one equals two. "It is the nature of the Will. And that's why you have all your vices. Nothing can stop the destruction of the Universe. It will happen, so I decided that I had to claim all the Keys as quickly as possible, so that when I become Architect, and destroy the Universe, I will recreate it as it was using information from the Atlas, and few Denizens will die and most of them will be re-creatable. The same with you. Hand over your Key now, and that way you can save the House from sustaining more damage and more Denizens from dying, which I will then be unable to save. Once I am Architect, I will destroy the universe _all at once_ before taking a snapshot of it using the Atlas, allowing me to recreate the House almost as it is before its destruction."

There was a long silence, so much that Arthur was sure that Sunday had hung up or something. Instead, he said, "Your plan is futile. Only the Elysium will remain, and that is the only part of the House you will be able to recreate. Everyone else will die."

"Not if I instruct the Atlas to take a snapshot and then save it for a while," Arthur said. "It normally retains one anyway, but it can only be for a few hours at maximum before the destruction of the House. That way, the House can also be created again the way it is, the way it is right now, even, if you just hand me the Key."

"If destruction is the best hope you can give me, then you and I have no more business now. Best you hand me the Keys and let me tackle the Will," Sunday replied.

"And what will you do then?" Arthur asked. "Don't you think that I thought of that! Even if I, the Rightful Heir, took all seven Keys and tried to stop the Will, I couldn't. Not forever. The Will is going to be completed eventually, and you can see that in how it has affected your Days. It made Tuesday greedy and damage the foundations of the House, and Saturday was ready to destroy most of the House due to her envy, essentially doing what the Will wanted. No, the Will is going to be done, and if that's true, it will be done on my terms, so that we can get something back at the end."

"Have it your way then," Sunday said. "I didn't expect a mortal to understand anyway. From what you say, it is clear that I have nothing to lose." This time, the phone disconnected.

Arthur sighed, contemplating the task that lay ahead of him. He would have to attend that meeting soon, and discuss their strategy against Lord Sunday.

For now, the Trustees were safe.

For now, his family was safe.

It was all perfect for him to execute his plan.

It was all perfect for him to start the ending of the Universe.

 **A/N: Jimmy, thanks for the review, and it's great how you like how fast we're going, because I was worried it was a bit too fast and skipped a lot of stuff. I think it was an integral part of the original books though, so we could get a good glimpse of the House, and also, Garth Nix probably signed a contract for seven whole books and needed to write down something. So much of Arthur's nature was made to explain that.**

 **And that ends this chapter. Sorry that it was a bit of filler, though was really more to get the story into line.**

 **All of that stuff that Falmouth said, I invented myself. I used to think that it could be Friday somewhere on Earth, and Saturday somewhere else, for example, so how did the Trustees split up the Universe? Either they owned segments of it, or they decided upon a set standard time.**

 **Also, I found it odd that in the last book Saturday's servants still fought with her though they had seen the Key being taken away. I guessed that was because they were loyal, though there may have been other reasons.**

 **Also, if the Piper thought that Saturday had been the one to throw him into Nothing, couldn't he have just asked her when she was in his power at the end?**

 **Not to mention I always wondered why at the beginning of _Lord Sunday_ when Arthur was falling he didn't make wings grow out of his back. He did it using only the Minute Key in the first book, so it should have been a piece of cake, or maybe the Keys were making him so arrogant he couldn't think straight.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading, and if you liked, please do review!**


	10. Lord Sunday I

**A/N: Thank you for your reviews, Aquarius kills Foz and Otter Seastar. To answer Otter Seastar's question on why the other parts of the Will didn't kill the Trustees, I based it on the fact that they were killed at the beginning of** _ **Sir Thursday**_ **when the Will had three parts complete and fused. Noticeably, the Will got more homicidal with every part that got added to it, so Arthur decided to split them up in this version. So, we had Diligence with the Second Key, but Diligence alone never killed Mister Monday in canon so that wasn't something to worry about. Prudence and Faith had fused and were in Sir Thursday's domain, but they didn't have the Key (and this is just my theory, but I think having several Keys increased the Will's tendencies to seek revenge- as Arthur noted that he wanted to make several people, like Doctor Scamandros, beg for forgiveness and all) and let's be honest, this is Prudence and Faith we're talking about, even if they decided to kill Thursday they'd probably take at least a month to do so. Also, a Key was probably how Dame Primus killed them originally given the way Tuesday died (he was pushed off a cliff and made so he couldn't scream, meaning it was a sorcery, but there are no sorcerers in Dame Primus' command, meaning it was probably using the Key). Finally, Arthur did pardon them in this version, so they might have taken some time to think about it rather than go through with it. The other parts were with Arthur, especially Justice, which was the real troublemaker all along. So that's the rather long explanation done. Also, nice to know that you liked the Border Sea getting attention, but that was mainly because it was the easiest Key to get and Arthur didn't have any Keys to ride the Stair around like usual.**

 **And here we continue, starting with Arthur's plan to finally topple Lord Sunday. I'll be honest, these are the chapters that I had no idea how I was going to write when I started this fanfic. Like seriously, I knew how I was going to write up till Saturday, and even the Epilogue, but not how Arthur was supposed to take the Key from Sunday. Garth Nix didn't exactly make it easy.**

 _The Seventh Part of the Will is hidden in a cage in Lord Sunday's Elysium, and the cage can only be opened with the Seventh Key, and the Will cannot help the heir obtain the Key from inside the cage._

Arthur stared at the page in the Atlas, dumbfounded. "Surely, if I have six Keys or something I can open it?"

 _The Mariner's harpoon can open the cage, but it will kill the Mariner in the process._

Arthur didn't want the Morrow Days to die, so killing the Mariner was a huge no.

"There must be something else!" he cried. "I wouldn't have been given an impossible task!"

There was a pause before it started writing again.

 _The cage in question was one of the first things to come into being, and was made by the Architect as a whole, before She split herself to form the Old One. Therefore, if one wishes to open the cage, one needs the powers of the entire entity that was the Architect, or to be more precise, the Old One and the continuation of the Architect._

 _The Mariner's harpoon and the Piper's pipes were both blessed by the two of them as birthday presents from the two of them, so they can open the cage. The Seventh Key was made by Her before she split in two, so it can also open the cage. The rest of the six Keys, however, were made by Her and Her alone, and so lack the powers of the entire Architect and cannot open the cage._

Arthur sighed and closed the Atlas. This meant that he was going to have to go visit the Coal Cellar and have a talk with the Old One. In truth though, he had half a mind to just go and barge into the Incomparable Gardens and take on Sunday like that, mainly due to the effects of the Keys he was holding, which were giving him an illusion of invincibility.

Arthur knew that Lord Sunday would easily overcome him with one, two, or even three Keys, and having four or five probably only meant that he would be able to delay him long enough to run away. He wasn't sure what having all six Keys against the Seventh would do, most likely it would just end in a stalemate or something.

Arthur took a good look at where he was, at one of the upper floors of Saturday's tower. It was being decorated to host the meeting with the other officials from various parts of the House, and so was decorated luxuriously with cake, fruits, and other delicacies as well as several chairs. Arthur occupied the tallest chair in the room, with one besides him for Dame Primus.

The three Times from the Middle House were the first to arrive, followed by from the Great Maze, the Border Sea, and the Lower House and Far Reaches together. Dame Primus arrived almost last, and it was clear that she had fused with all of her parts as she looked more dominant and radian than ever.

Though not, Arthur thought, more dominating than me! For I have five Keys, and she has only one. Clearly, it is I who is superior to all-

He snapped out of these thoughts, which had recently grown to such extent that they were messing with his ability to think and plan his next moves clearly. The Keys were meant to strengthen him, but he was also weaker in a way with them. Yet, he needed them, on the off chance that Sunday would launch an attack against them, though that was not likely.

There were several others present, including Doctor Scamandros and Suzy as well.

Dame Primus cleared her throat. "I hereby commence this meeting, related to the Keys, the Rightful Heir, and other miscellaneous matters." She pulled out a hefty tome. "I have taken the liberty of organizing an agenda for us to follow."

Arthur took a quick glance through his copy of the agenda and realized, of course, that it was completely useless. "We don't have time for this," Arthur said. "And why would you organize this stuff alphabetically instead of by importance?"

Dame Primus sniffed. "As you wish it to be organized then." She then began tapping her pencil and things began moving in the agenda to other pages.

"More importantly," Arthur said, and everyone in the room looked at him with rapt attention, which would have otherwise unnerved him but some part of him liked it, "I need an update on keeping the day Friday on Earth."

Falmouth was present at the meeting, and said, "As you wished sire, we have succeeded in slowing down the time between the House and Earth, so that it will now take about a year in House Time, or True Time, for it to become Saturday on Earth."

Arthur nodded. "Good. Saturday has been taken care of, and I think most of the House should be safe for now, as Sunday will probably be taking measures against us, but he won't bother until we come to him, and he won't go about destroying the House as Saturday wanted."

"On that note," Dame Primus said, "where are the ex-Trustees? I can't seem to be able to locate them."

"I noticed that they might be in trouble of being assassinated," Arthur said. "So I have taken care that they are located safely and away from harm."

"Does this mean that Duchess Wednesday will not be returning to rule?" Wednesday's Dawn asked, with an accusatory tone in her voice.

"She might," Arthur said. "Provided all of this is over."

Dame Primus frowned. Arthur was sure that she knew her whole purpose now, but he decided to let her think that he was ignorant for now. "And how are repairs going in on the demesnes that have been damaged?"

Wednesday's Noon said, "We have begun various works in the Border Sea, and have even managed to erect telephone poles in certain areas, though they still don't work in a large area there."

Arthur nodded, he had been expecting that some telephone lines would become functional, after all, they had been drowned under water and not completely destroyed, which was how he had been able to contact Duchess Wednesday earlier.

"And the Pit?" Arthur asked.

"The Pit has been 0.03% filled already, Lord Arthur," Dame Primus said. "Many of the precautionary measures that you had wanted have been placed, and several of Saturday's minions had come to try and sabotage the place, though most of them were blocked. One succeeded though, and the leakage was quickly suppressed though half a dozen of our workers were dissolved."

The number hit Arthur. Half a dozen gone. True, he knew deep down that he couldn't save everybody, but he could at least try, so he reasoned.

"The Border Sea, however, needs the Third Key to restrain it and remove it from the places where it has impinged on Nothing," Wednesday's Dawn said.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have time for that," Arthur said. "Furthermore, it has survived for ten thousand years, so it would do well for another few weeks before I take down Sunday."

Wednesday's Dawn looked like she seriously wanted to protest, but was nudged by Wednesday's Dusk.

Then, there were a whole lot of trivial yet somewhat important matters, like transporting powder, the upcoming campaign in the Great Maze, who was going to fill in for Saturday's time, etc. It all took around six hours further to sort out before Arthur thought that he had had enough.

"I'm going to need the Second Key now," Arthur said. He looked at the Second Key on Dame Primus' fingers, and a part of him instantly wanted to take it, it was his, of course, and it belonged with him, and not-

Arthur once again had to trouble himself to shake off those thoughts. It might not have been possible to get addicted to the Keys, but it was possible to get addicted to power. And the Keys kept stimulating feelings in him that were severely counterproductive.

Dame Primus handed Arthur the Second Key, and he put it on, and felt another surge of confidence. He now had even more than half a mind to simply use the Stair and tackle Sunday, though he forced himself to take an elevator to the Lower House. The Stair would have also worked, but he no longer wanted to take the risk with the Stair. Not to mention he was sure that Sunday might be rigging the Stair, and causing anyone who walked on it to land up in his domain, so that they could be ambushed later.

The ride down took an entire two hours even with Arthur seriously abusing his power to get it as fast as possible.

The elevator didn't go to the bottom of the Coal Cellar, so Arthur got off of it, and after a moment's paused, jumped down to the bottom, once again feeling a crazy sense of euphoria.

He didn't even bother thinking to wait and see if the Old One was dangerous or not, or reading up a bit more about him in the Atlas. He kept thinking, I have six Keys, and I'm the Rightful Heir, the guy will probably end up bowing down to me out of awe in my glory.

It was easy enough to find his prison, given that it glowed and there was a rather large person chained up to it.

Arthur pretty much just sauntered over to the clock and peered at the Old One like he was some sort of zoo animal.

He wasn't prepared for how quick the Old One was, or how strong his grip was.

Arthur was turned upside-down instantly, and all thoughts about being all-powerful ceased immediately. He knew that he was out of his league.

"Who dares?" the Old One asked. He then paused and looked at the Keys that adorned Arthur, and took a sniff of him. "A mortal… the Rightful Heir, I presume?"

"Yes," Arthur said in a small voice. The Old One dropped him, and Arthur just managed to land on his feet.

"What do you want, child?" the Old One asked.

Arthur instantly felt very foolish, and for the very first time he had stepped in the House, felt like he was not in control of the situation. True, the Morrow Days were powerful adversaries, but as far as he knew the Old One had no weakness.

"I wanted to ask you for a favor," Arthur said.

The Old One scratched his chin. "I will agree to not harm you for a length of time of an hour. And regardless of what you say, I will not hurt you, though I show no obligation to help you."

Arthur wanted to ask why he couldn't have more time, but guessed that it would have been futile anyway.

Arthur tried to explain his predicament as quickly as possilble, and did so under twenty minutes. He refused the wine that he was offered on the ground that he was underage, though the Old One didn't seem to know what that was. He did take a honey-cake though.

"So, I need your power to defeat Lord Sunday," Arthur said. "I know that he's your son, but he's also a traitor. And if it makes you feel any better, the Architect really did regret chaining you up like this. And the purpose of the Will is to ultimately set you free, so if you can help me somehow, you'll be freed eventually."

The Old One's eyes widened. "If she did regret what she did, there is little point in that now. And yet you say you are sure that completing the Will ensures my release?"

"Well, it destroys the House," Arthur said, "but it does that just so that you can be released, you know. So, can you like give my Keys some of your power or something?"

The Old One stroked his chin. "I admire your bravery, and I certainly do wish for my release. I cannot however, enchant something that has already been made completely. However, I can do something to help you. Give me your hand."

Arthur offered the Old One his hand, and the Old One gripped it and muttered something. Arthur felt a strange tingling sensation transfer to him.

"Nothing lies in great reserves beneath us," the Old One said. "Forge something using the power I have given you."

Arthur put his hand near the floor and began calling out to the Nothing, and though it was a tad bit unoriginal, formed a small glass key that looked so fragile it would break with but a touch, though it remained whole in his hand.

"That was forged with both our powers," the Old One said. "With yours derived from the Architect. It will open the cage, but can only do so once."

"Will I die if I use it?" Arthur asked apprehensively.

"That particular enchantment that kills all who touch the cage was made by Her," the Old One said. "It will not affect the wearer of the Seventh Key, and you being her Heir, will remain unaffected, especially given that you possess so many of the Keys. Now go, your time is about to be up."

"Can't I just have a few more-" Arthur began but didn't go further as he caught the look in the Old One's eyes, and scrambled. Once he was outside the rim of the clock, he raised the Fifth Key to use it to go back to the Upper House.

 **A/N: And that ends this chapter. I just have to say that it was really weird how Garth Nix says that the cage can't be opened without the Seventh Key and the Will can't get the Seventh Key inside the cage. I think it was just so that it wouldn't be too easy for Arthur to get the Key, but then he went ahead through that loophole by having the Mariner open it. Why could his harpoon open it and not the Keys, with the Keys being supposedly more powerful than it? He didn't give a reason, so I tried to invent one as best as I could that would sort of fit with the original storyline. Tell me how you liked it.**

 **On a side note though, Monday's Noon was only able to stay till Noon, but Friday's Dusk and Noon were together there in Friday's retreat, so that's another thing that seems to fall between the cracks. Also, could the Days, in theory, have gone back in time and done something like kill Arthur's parents before they met, thereby preventing his birth and all?**

 **As always, thanks again for reading, and please do review if you liked.**


	11. Lord Sunday II

**A/N: And so we come to a close of our fanfic. Also, I noticed that I forgot to mention this, in this version Arthur comes to the House before Monday out of his own volition, so the Fetchers don't have time to arrive and the Sleepy Plague doesn't happen. I was so caught up in pointing out Garth Nix's plot holes that I left a huge gaping one in mine…**

 **Also, I'm not sure how much of a Denizen Arthur has become. Arthur used the Minute Key a lot and also the Second Key, before he realized they would contaminate him. I'm putting him at 45% Denizen right now.**

Arthur emerged out of a reflective silver jug, slightly disoriented. He pocketed his newfound treasure from the Old One.

Fortunately, all of the higher-ups were still in the Upper House, so it wasn't too hard to organize another meeting.

"Now listen up," Arthur said, "the time has come for us to strike against Lord Sunday."

"So soon?" Suzy asked.

Arthur frowned, irritated by the disturbance. The arrogance that had been washed away in the Old One's presence was returning now.

"Yes," Arthur said. "First of all, we will need another one of those Nothing spikes. The Drasils currently grow beyond our ability to stop them, but using the power of six Keys I will be able to launch both of the spikes high enough. The genius in our plan, like in many plans, lies in its simplicity. One of the spikes will be empty and pierce the Incomparable Gardens over our tower, where no doubt Lord Sunday has already stationed troops. Dame Primus and I will be in another one, which will pierce the Gardens a few miles to the left, and with the first one as a direction, the two of us will enter the Gardens and free the Seventh Part of the Will, and claim the Seventh Key."

Dame Primus frowned. "Lord Arthur, I must ask you to wait for us to gather our forces from the Great Maze-"

"We won't be needing them," Arthur said. "They'll all just be slaughtered anyway. The only ones who stand a real chance are you and I, and it'll be just us."

"Wait, so you won't be taking _any_ of our forces?" Marshall Noon asked incredulously.

"No," Arthur said. He felt anger rising within him, how dare his subordinates question his authority? He stood up, and the atmosphere within the room changed. "And that is my final word on the matter."

He would later feel guilty for saying this, and at the same time to prideful to ask.

As it turned out, they didn't need to manufacture a new spike, because they were only transporting two people they could make the base a whole lot smaller, and so simply split the old one into two.

Arthur wrote on the spikes using the Sixth Key, and enchanted them with the rest as well. He and Dame Primus got into a chamber beneath one of them, and the other one was left empty.

"I must still ask you to reconsider," Dame Primus said. Though she carried no Keys with her, she was still six parts of the Will itself, and her voice carried a certain power with it. "We may have use for our troops, and though they might be slaughtered, they could help in buying time."

Arthur shook his head. "I'm not going to condemn thousands of Denizens to their doom just to buy a few minutes."

Arthur then drew on the power of all six of his Keys, and levitated the two spikes. He then moved the one they were on as far as he could get it without hampering his ability to manipulate the other spike.

Saturday couldn't have done this without harming the Drasils, Arthur thought, at least not with one Key. Plus, Arthur was only transporting the spike, and not around two thousand Denizens too. The laws of gravity still applied in the House after all.

Arthur then twitched the Second Key, and both spikes rocketed towards the floor of the Incomparable Gardens, with one moving faster than the other.

* * *

Lord Sunday was not one to worry, though the fact that the Heir had defeated even Saturday meant that he was next, and though he considered it far beneath him, he was forced to intervene.

He had heard that the Heir had a preference for using the Stair, and had so used the Seventh Key to lay out a trap for the Heir. If he went on the Stair, it would try to land him in the Incomparable Gardens, where he would ambush him, imprison him, and force him to surrender his Keys.

He also knew about Saturday's plans, and that the Heir, if he was not coming through Stair, he would come from above Saturday's tower. He had that covered as well, as there were scores of his soldiers waiting to receive them.

He felt smug, as usual. There was no need for someone like him, who was flawless, to worry about something as little as the Rightful Heir.

Just then, he felt a tremor underneath his feet and turned his gaze, using the Seventh Key to see where the commotion was.

As expected, the Heir had decided to come through the point beneath Saturday's tower. Really now, with all that Mother harped on about mortal's creativity, they were so predictable. Sunday turned to where the spike was and reached there on his dragonfly. To his surprise, there was no one he could sense in there. He frowned.

And that's when the second spike hit the Incomparable Gardens.

* * *

The moment that they reached the Incomparable Gardens, Arthur climbed out immediately, and shouted, "Keys! Shield us from being detected by Lord Sunday's Key!"

Nothing happened, but a small cloud of dark ink from the Sixth Key surrounded Arthur and Dame Primus. It sort of smeared out their appearances, but to Arthur it didn't look like much of a disguise.

Then again, that might have been because he had been the one to cast the spell.

Both of them continued onwards, towards the Elysium, guided by the Atlas which used Arthur as the pivot of a compass. Behind, Arthur could vaguely make out a tall Denizen on a dragonfly, and from him emanated what felt like a hand, which swept over the Incomparable Gardens.

"We need to move faster!" Arthur said and began sprinting.

Of course, Lord Sunday was on a dragonfly after all, and their chances of outrunning him were nil.

Arthur had known that all along, and it was time for the next phase of his plan.

"Dame Primus," Arthur said. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you behind."

"What?" she asked.

Arthur shrugged. "One of us needs to distract Lord Sunday. This disguise will probably fail if he gets too close to us, and when he sees you, he will try to capture you. But that doesn't really matter now, as I can free you once I free the Seventh Part of the Will."

Dame Primus snarled, with a hint of the snake in her eyes. "You brought me here… _to be used as bait_?"

"Yes, Lord Sunday will be looking for a reason for why this attack happened, so give him one: _you_ ," Arthur said, without remorse, knowing full well that the Will would have readily done the same to him.

That wasn't to say that he didn't feel bad about it.

The Will didn't try to resist though, probably sensing that for the greater cause this was necessary. Arthur undid the spell on Dame Primus.

Dame Primus had been given all the knowledge that the Architect had, including that of House Sorcery, though that had been locked up in the Sixth Part. Now, though she possessed no Keys, she took out an umbrella, and fired a bolt of lightning at Lord Sunday's dragonfly.

The lightning bolt fizzled out of existence several feet from him, and he turned to look at what had cast the spell.

Dame Primus glanced in the direction she knew Arthur was heading in. She then prepared another strike; she had to distract him for as long as possible, though she knew it was futile in the end.

Still, she allowed some of her long-repressed hate to come out as she shouted, "Where are you running off to, traitor?"

* * *

Arthur had to direct all of his concentration at not turning around and fighting. Something about the Keys made him want to instantly turn around and start engaging Sunday, though he knew it wasn't wise to do so.

He passed through open fields, orchards, vineyards, sandy beaches, all filled with various types of flora he did not have time to admire. He didn't know how long he had been running, but it must have been hours, though incredibly he didn't need to stop or rest. Denizens and other creatures seemed to be unable to seem him, showing that his disguise was probably working.

As he reached the steps to the Elysium, the staircase itself unwinding and started coiling around him.

Arthur had wanted to fight something, and now nothing could stop him from striking at the thing using the First Key. However, he was surprised to see that it did nothing to the creature, and then tried the Fourth Key. He tried burning it with the Fifth Key, and that's when he started panicking.

 _Arthur!_ a distant voice shouted. _What you fight is one of the Architect's first creations, the wormsnake, which can only be killed by the Seventh Key. However-_

Arthur realized that the thing was like the cage, and after a brief moment of shock, he got an idea and jumped onto one coil, ran around it, then to the next coil, and like that was off the thing and continued up to the hill.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Lord Sunday had taken care of Dame Primus by then and had discovered their ruse. He was flying very close to Arthur, and Arthur felt his disguise dissipate. As he got closer, Lord Sunday began throwing lightning bolts at Arthur which he had to deflect using his Keys, each time he did so it would send a spike of pain through his head and cause him to get more and more fatigued.

Arthur finally felt the attacks stop, and walked into a clearing with a green Denizen and a cage, inside of which was the Seventh Part of the Will, as it was supposed to be.

The Denizen, probably Sunday's Dusk, was dispatched of within seconds before he could even react using the Second Key, and Arthur fiddled in his pockets for the glass key he had made, and for a moment feared that he had dropped it somewhere, but thankfully found it and inserted it into the cage and turned it.

Arthur had been expecting some sort of shock, or sparks to fly, but there was merely a simple click sound and the door opened. The key them broke into a million tiny pieces and sparkled before being carried away by the wind.

And that was when Arthur felt something travel through his fingers. At first he thought it was simply numbness, but with horror realized that his fingers were dying. And it was spreading up the length of his right arm.

The Old One said I'd be fine! Arthur thought. He then realized that the cage's killing property had been made by the Architect, and the Old One might not have known all about it. The Keys seemed to be delaying it, but they weren't stopping it.

The sensation travelled up his arm, and he felt wherever it went go lifeless, until the Seventh Part of the Will touched him with a root, and the sensation dissipated.

 _I have prevented it from killing you_ , the Will said. _However, I would have been unable to do so if you hadn't freed me first, as I cannot touch the bars of this cage._

Lord Sunday landed besides them right then, not even bothering to use the ladder hanging from the dragonfly. He took a glance at his fallen servant and raised his hand, but was stopped as a root emerged from the earth and struck him. More branches came out, multiplying over and over and binding him tightly, preventing him from using the Seventh Key.

 _Quickly!_ the Will said. _I cannot hold him off forever!_

"I, Lord Arthur Penhalingon, the Rightful Heir, hereby claim the Seventh Key to the Kingdom, and with it mastery over the Incomparable Gardens and sovereignty over the House and the Secondary Realms. I claim it out of truth, testament, and against all trouble!"

The Tree withdrew its roots once that was finished, and Lord Sunday stopped struggling.

"You have doomed us all," Lord Sunday said and took out the Seventh Key from his neck, where it floated in the air and landed on Arthur's head.

 **A/N: So, that's all for this time. Thanks for reading, and as always, if you liked, do review!**


	12. Two Choices

Time seemed to stop as the Seventh Key touched Arthur's head, resting on it for a moment like a crown before descending downwards towards his neck.

All the confidence, the arrogance, that the Keys had given him were absolutely nothing compared to what happened then.

I AM LORD ARTHUR, RULER OF ALL! Arthur thought. He got up, and as he did, he found himself getting taller, and he stood even taller than Lord Sunday, and he didn't remember putting those iridescent wings on his back on, but that was of little worry to him, now that he was Master now.

Arthur laughed, for a moment completely forgetting about all of his plans and used the Seven Keys to let his mind wander around the Gardens. He could see everything, in very excellent detail and at a pace that would have normally overwhelmed his mortal mind. And his view wasn't limited to the Gardens either, no, he found himself travelling downwards and seeing the Upper House. He found himself reaching for the warehouse that he had created, and he merely thought about brining it to him when it appeared right next to him.

"Open," Arthur said, and the door opened and the other Morrow Days came out to join Sunday in his defeat.

 _This is all fine and well, Arthur,_ the Will said, _but we do need to free the rest of me and get a move on, after all, I have waited an entire ten thousand years for this moment._

Arthur located Dame Primus, who was currently chained up to a clock, and opened the chains binding her and disabled the clock's puppets.

"Key, amplify my voice," Arthur said. "Dame Primus! I have won! Come to the Elysium, and let none of my new servants harrow you in this!"

Arthur then turned to the Morrow Days, but mainly Sunday. "You don't have much more time right now. What to do now with my power?"

"You might as well kill all of us," Sunday said, still not even deeming to look at Arthur, as if that would have been beneath him.

Arthur had to admit that seemed like a tempting prospect for a minute, but as he reached for the Seventh Key, he also felt something in his pocket that he had almost forgotten about. He took it out, and beheld a small yellow toy, the last reminder of his parents.

"I'm not killing anyone," Arthur said. "At the very least, not yet."

"It would be a mercy, in many a ways," Sunday said. "I still cannot reconcile myself with the fact that I lost to a mere mortal."

"None of this would have happened if you weren't too prideful to act," Saturday hissed.

"And of course, you attempting to steal my Gardens from me was fine?" Sunday snapped back.

Wednesday looked at Arthur with a worried expression on her face. "Does this mean that we don't have to hide anymore?"

Arthur shook his head. "No, you don't. But I regret to tell you that it will soon all be over."

Wednesday realized what Arthur was saying and asked, "Can't you do anything to stop it?"

"I wish I could," Arthur said. "But the Will cannot be denied, only delayed. This had to happen sooner or later, and I choose sooner."

Sunday snorted. Arthur could tell that Sunday was trying to ignore Arthur, but something, perhaps the presence of the other Days, was causing him to look beyond his pride and instead speak. He looked at Arthur with undisguised hatred.

"And I suppose you think you've won?" Sunday asked. "Of course, it is all right and dandy for you, who will become the New Architect, but what of us? What did Mother ever think for us? We were her most loyal servants, and yet she deemed that we would all be destroyed, and tell me Heir, for what reason? Because she decided to go into a spat with my father, chained him up, and then realized that she had made the chains a bit too tight! Do you realize just how ridiculous that sounds?"

Sunday gestured towards the other Days. "We were not always like this. True, we did fight amongst each other occasionally, but still… they were all I had. They were like… my… _family_." Sunday seemed to have trouble getting that last word out. "We simply wanted to rule peacefully and be just sovereigns of our realms, but the accursed Will would not even allow that to happen. It afflicted us with our sins, and we slowly sank into despondence and despair. I was so afflicted with pride that I began to ignore the other Days and the realms, Saturday turned against me, Friday harmed thousands of mortals, Thursday struck against his own soldiers, Wednesday turned into a leviathan, Tuesday nearly destroyed the House, and Monday went into laziness, but tell me Heir, who was responsible for that? Who was responsible for our crimes that we committed? It was the _thing_ that gave us those sins in the first place, the Will, not we, who are responsible for all the things afflicting the House. What right did the Will have to take everything, to take my family away form me? What right did Mother have? What right did _you_ have?"

It was Arthur's turn to remain silent now. He realized that he had almost forgotten an integral part of his plan. Dame Primus was approaching soon, and he took out the Atlas, and said, "Atlas! I order you to take a snapshot of the Universe as it is, and save it, so that I may later use it to re-create the House and the Secondary Realms as they are!"

The Atlas glowed, and Arthur felt it vibrating as it attempted to store all the information of all the millions of universes in one place. It was done in less than ten seconds.

Dame Primus appeared, and took a glance at the Trustees, as if she wanted to strangle them, but then thought Nothing of it.

She instead reached for the Seventh Part of the Will, and took a bite of the single apple hanging from its branches.

It made a loud _crunch!_ noise which reverberated inside Arthur, and he knew immediately that something had been broken that wasn't supposed to be.

The Will turned into a roaring column of words, which spelled out millions of phrases, though there was only one coherent one, 'Let the Will be done!'

The Will attempted to take control of Arthur, to make him a conduit for destroying the Universe, but it didn't need to. Arthur had already turned to the rest of the House, and began ripping shreds into the walls and roof, and great tides of Nothing began coming in, and consumed everything except the Elysium within seconds.

The Nothing paused for a second before consuming the Elysium. The seven Morrow Days looked on at the tide of the Nothing, and though they had been frozen before, their mouths could now move.

Sunday turned to Saturday. "Now that we're all dying, I just think this would be the right time to say this. I just wanted to let you know, that I hate you and I always have."

Saturday nodded. "I want to let you know that the feeling is mutual."

Arthur vaguely wondered if 'hate' was a code word for something else as Sunday and Saturday shook hands on it just as the Old One appeared.

"Hello Old One!" Arthur cried out giddily. "Glad to see you could make it to the party!"

"This doesn't seem like much of a party," Friday said. "I mean, this is probably the third worst party I've ever been to."

"I sincerely hope, for the sake of your high school years, that you are capable of hosting a better party than something like this," the Old One said. "If you have high school years, that is."

The Old One joined the column of fiery words, and then the words spelled out, 'Let the Will be done! May Nothing remain!'

And then there was Nothing.

Arthur felt the Nothing surround him, but it hadn't dissolved him. No, it couldn't dissolve him unless he willed it to, not now. He felt some changes happen to him, changes that completed his transformation from mortal to the New Architect.

He saw something in the Nothing, a lone figure that shimmered between being Dame Primus, and the Old One. "Thank you Arthur," it said. "You knew what was going to happen, and yet you assisted. I am going to sleep now. Rule well, Arthur."

And then, the Old Architect went to lie on Nothing and fell asleep, leaving Arthur all alone.

Arthur reached out for the Atlas, and knew its contents as he held it in his hand. His saved snapshot of the Universe was still there, waiting to be created.

Yet, Arthur knew that he theoretically had a choice, he could make the Old Universe, or a new one, but that wasn't a real choice, as there was no way he was going to abandon the old one with his family

Still, Arthur didn't have a choice in that matter, not a real one, but he did, in fact, have a choice. The Old Universe would be brought back, of course, and Arthur had already planned how it was going to be before he even entered the House, but still, hearing Lord Sunday had given him another idea.

It all went down to how he wanted to treat the Trustees. Would he look upon them as sinners who had to be punished, or could he forgive them, and let them return to their original positions to become just rulers? Regarding the second choice, another idea crept into his mind.

Arthur gazed out into the Void, knowing that he _did_ have a real choice.

He had two choices.


	13. Epilogue: Choice A

Arthur looked around, to find himself now a mortal. He glanced around to see the Incomparable Gardens, and the Elysium intact. The Trustees were also there, and looking down from where he was, Arthur could see shapes of other Denizens as well.

The Trustees, however, weren't moving. Arthur waved his hand in front of Sunday's face comically, to get no response.

"They're all frozen like that for the time being, Arthur, along with all other Denizens and Piper's Children in the House," a voice behind him said.

Arthur turned around to see the New Architect, and he knew just by looking at him that he was the New Architect, though he looked more like how Arthur would have looked like when he was twenty-one.

"So, the House is back?" Arthur asked.

"Indeed it is," the New Architect replied. "All of it, from the Lower House to the Incomparable Gardens, Denizens and Piper's Children all intact."

"And what am I then?" Arthur asked. "I remember planning to split myself up after becoming the Architect, like the Old Architect had, but rather than doing it into two pieces, I had thought seven would have been better. Seven is a pretty stable number after all, and it made sense then. Did I… did _we_ actually break ourselves into seven?"

The New Architect nodded. "Yes we did. I am the First Piece, the Core of the Architect and the most powerful, and you are the Seventh, the Mortal Architect, and the least powerful."

Arthur gazed around the Gardens and noticed that there was something that was moving along the horizon on a dragonfly. Arthur could just make it out as someone over ten feet tall.

"That is our third part," the New Architect said. "He is the Denizen, or rather the creature we became as we claimed the Seventh Key and before we became Architect. He is currently Lord Sunday. Our parts are numbered in order to most powerful to least, if you were wondering."

"So… we decided not to forgive the Trustees?" Arthur asked.

"I, no, we, thought that Lord Sunday's word did ring true in some manner," the New Architect said. "However, they still committed many atrocities, and we found that we could not forgive all of them. They will not get their domains back, and will be punished."

"You might want to give Wednesday back hers," Arthur said. "And maybe Monday too."

The New Architect shrugged. "Maybe. _After_ they've proven themselves worthy, because I'm afraid that they will all share an equal punishment."

"Where are our other four parts?" Arthur asked.

"They have left to perform their duties," the New Architect said. "Some of them don't even have real bodies, they exist as forces which maintain the integrity of the House and the Secondary Realms. Some of them do not even resemble humanoid figures. I do not think you will be seeing them soon though."

An idea struck Arthur. "How long has it been?"

"It has been seven days since Creation was made again," the New Architect said. "I was spending my time telling my other parts how to do their duties and setting certain things straight and all."

"Am I mortal?" Arthur asked.

"No," the New Architect said bluntly.

Arthur sighed. "You know, you could've just said 'yes', even if it would have been a lie. It might've been better for me."

The New Architect laughed. "True, but the truth often rings more powerfully than lies. You are as mortal as a creature which was once the Creator itself can possibly be. You will not get sick ever again, but your blood is red, and though you may heal faster than a normal mortal, you are not immortal. You will die eventually. Your lifespan will be long, but not much longer than three hundred years outside of the House."

Arthur gulped. "And what happens then?"

"Then, your soul will fuse with me- the Core, and we will become One," the New Architect said. "Either that, or you can choose to be reborn as another mortal again, and again, for as long as you wish, or can stay in the House for some time."

Arthur then asked, "What happens when-I mean, _if_ , we don't want to keep living anymore, like the Old Architect did? We shouldn't go and repeat the same mistakes that She, the Old Architect did." Truth be told, Arthur had felt a bit of sympathy for the Architect when he had read about what had happened to her. He couldn't possibly understand her completely, but having been once so powerful he held the Universe in his hands, he realized how it must have felt like from Her point of view. And for that matter, he didn't resent her for what She did.

The New Architect smiled. "Do not worry. There is an added bonus to us splitting into seven, though I may be the Architect's core, I'm not powerful enough to chain any one of us permanently to creation if I get angry enough. So, if we _do_ ever tire of all of this-" he said, waving his arms, "we can simply return to the Nothing without having to destroy all of Creation like She had to."

Arthur smiled. "So, all of it is set then, right? I can't believe that we actually managed to do it."

The New Architect smiled too. "Indeed. Also, though you don't really have any powers left with you, you might feel some things that our other parts do, maybe in your dreams. They just _might_ contact you, or maybe not. And you did get to keep one of the Architect's powers."

"Really?" Arthur asked. "What is it? Can I shoot laser-beams out of my eyes?"

"Nothing that dramatic," the New Architect said. "But it is important. Slightly."

He then motioned to a place where there were the Seven Dials.

"Bye for now Arthur," the Architect said. He handed Arthur a small red box and a letter. "Use the box to contact me if you have to. The letter is important, open it when you get home. I have removed the sorcerous contamination back on Earth, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Alright," Arthur said, feeling as if the weight of the Universe had been lifted from his shoulders, which, he realized, had been.

And so, Arthur left the House, though somewhere in his heart, he knew he would be coming back.

Someday.

The New Architect watched Arthur go away, and frowned. He had a feeling he was forgetting something. Something important.

"Wait!" he shouted, though it was no use as Arthur was gone already. "You forgot to take Elephant with you!"

* * *

Arthur found himself in his room, on Sunday afternoon, the day he had left for the House, because he had known that Monday would have been coming from him the next day.

He heard Bob humming a tune downstairs, and he saw his mother arrive in her car near their garage.

Arthur smiled, but before he joined them, he took a look at the letter that the New Architect had given him. It was written using a modern gel pen, and said:

 _Dear Arthur,_

 _If you were wondering about what your power was, it is the Architectural Pardon. Basically, I've left you with the power to pardon anyone, within the House or Secondary Realms, of their crimes, following which they will not be held accountable for them, not even to me. I thought that, being a mortal and hence the most forgiving of us, you would be the best fit to receive that power._

 _Also, the Trustees are going to be punished, and that's where you have to come in. I've decided to turn them into mortals as their punishment, and I want you to check what their progress is. If you pardon them when you feel like they've learned their lesson, I'll let them back into the House. I haven't told them this yet, and you shouldn't either, otherwise they might want to trick you._

 _Signed,_

 _The First Piece and Core of the Architect, the Greatest and Most Powerful of the Pieces_

Arthur could hardly believe it. Downstairs, his mother had arrived in the house.

"Sorry I'm late everyone," she said "It was just that some new neighbors have arrived, and I had just dropped by to say hello. I have to say, they were a bit strange and there were seven of them, but they seemed friendlier when I mentioned I was Emily Penhalingon. I didn't know I was that famous!"

Arthur dropped the letter and ran downstairs.

He wanted to see his family again, for it had seemed like such a long time since he had last seen them, and deep down, truth be told, he was glad to be on another adventure, even if it was just watching the Morrow Days fail epically at trying to be mortals.

* * *

Throughout all of this, though Arthur got his happy ending in the end, and the Morrow Days kind of did, I'm guessing that you noticed that we left the story of one person out of this whole thing: the Piper.

If you're wondering, about a year later in House Time, the Piper had finished his preparations, and was about to assault the House when he got an unexpected visitor.

She looked like a Piper's Child, but better cleaned and based on her clothes he could tell she was a high-ranking person.

"What is it?" the Piper asked.

"Not much," she answered. "M' name's Suzy Turquoise Blue, former ink-filler, and now in charge of all Piper's Children throughout the House, and their rehabilitation, in accordance with the New Architect's orders. I've also been working on my manners and language now."

The Piper frowned, though no one could see it under the mask. "Wait- the New Architect?"

"Yes," Suzy said. "The Will was fulfilled, and the New Architect is really the Heir. It's nice that you wanted to try and take it 'oll for yourself, but you're a bit late to the struggle. Didn't you feel it when the House was destroyed? It was made exactly as it had been before, so you might not have noticed." The Piper did remember something, there had been a huge wave of Nothing, and it had dissolved all of his army in seconds, but strangely enough, he had found himself and his army exactly as they had been before and had decided that it had probably been a dream or something.

"But-but-" the Piper stammered. "I made this whole army and everything and spent seven hundred years plotting revenge- you're telling me it was all for nothing?"

"Yup," Suzy said. "But the New Architect wanted me to give you this."

Suzy pulled out a ribbon and gave it to the Piper. The ribbon was a nice shade of blue and said: I TRIED TO TAKE OVER THE HOUSE BY FORCE AND I ALMOST SUCCEEDED.

"That's all I get!" the Piper asked. "A ribbon?"

"Well, he also wanted to let you know that the position for Tuesday is open, and given that you liked creating things, it seemed apt that you'd take it," Suzy said, relishing the fact that she could now say things like 'apt' properly in a sentence. "Will you take it?"

"Okay," the Piper sniffed.

"Oh, and you might be pleased to know that the Mariner is currently Wednesday, for the time being, until we can find a suitable replacement, so you might meet him too," Suzy said.

The Piper hadn't seen his brother in quite a long time, and he really had something he wanted to say to Sunday, but that could wait for now.

"Also, you can have this," Suzy said.

The Piper took a small yellow elephant. "What's this supposed to be?"

"It was Art's," Suzy said. "That's what we're calling the New Architect. Anyway, he said that he knew you were angry and wanted revenge, but said that maybe that would remind you of who you really were, like it had for him once. I didn't really get what he was saying though."

The Piper looked at the small toy, now thinking of his childhood. "Alright then. Let's get a move on."

For the first time in a long while, he smiled.

But no one could see it under his mask.

 **A/N: And this is the penultimate chapter of our fanfic. Don't worry, 'Epilogue: Choice B' will be the last one so there is more coming. I had honestly thought of the Architect splitting into seven before I read Dragonlord Stephi's fanfic (because there was seven of everything, it made sense for there to be seven pieces of the Architect too) and the Architectural Pardon as well, but he wrote 'A Mortal Pain' and I thought that the last paragraphs about Arthur would be a kind of tribute to it.**

 **So, anyway, I always thought that Garth Nix had left it open-ended as to what would eventually happen to mortal Arthur (he had to die at some time, or something else) and it seemed like it would all just lead to the same problem as the Old Architect faced again, so I tried to fix it up as best as I could.**

 **Also, I'm sorry if this story seemed a bit too good to be true, I mean, no one really died, the Trustees and Arthur's family is okay and all, but this was sort of meant to be ideal for me, but I guess maybe not all that realistic and such with almost everyone getting a happy ending.**

 **Thank you for reading all the way up till now, and please do review on what you thought of this ending.**


	14. Epilogue: Choice B

Lord Sunday found himself suddenly blinking as he looked at the sun that was rising over the Incomparable Gardens.

Last thing he remembered, he and his fellow Morrow Days had been swallowed up by Nothing, yet as he looked around, he saw the entire Incomparable Gardens, exactly as perfect as they had been before the House was destroyed. He made to grip his Key to see further, but when his fingers clutched nothing, he remembered that he had lost it.

He looked around. Saturday and the rest were there, though they were unmoving.

"Hello?" Sunday asked as he crept up to Saturday. "Saturday? Unsuperior-Susan-Says-What?"

There was no response.

"That usually gets to her," Sunday said. "I guess they really are all frozen."

"Yup," a voice said behind him. Sunday turned around to see a twelve-year old mortal child whom he knew all too well.

"You?" Sunday asked. "What-why-who-when?"

"You forgot how," Arthur said. "So let's start at the beginning. Even though all of you guys were total jerks and would have deserved to dissolve in Nothing, some part of what you said made me think that you were right. The House shouldn't be run by a mortal, but by someone experienced enough with it. And the Architect shouldn't have done what she did to you. So, I've recreated everything, and I'm going to give each of you your positions back."

Sunday was elated, though he didn't want to show it. "Just like that?"

"Actually," Arthur said. "That's not the whole story. You'll get your Keys back, but I've made some changes to them. For one, I've modified the Accord, it is much stronger now, so don't try to violate it, you know, because it won't end up good. Also, I've decided that the House should be run as a democracy, or at least, since Denizens can't really take normal democracy, the Seven Days should rule together. So, all of your, as well as Saturday's privileges of controlling the other demesnes are over. All the Morrow Days are now equal and rulers of their own domains. That means several things, including the fact that Sir Thursday is supreme commander of the Army of the Architect now, you can't mess with the elevators in other domains, levy taxes, and other stuff."

Arthur gestured to a pile of thick tomes behind him that were taller than even Sunday. "That's basically the new treaty written down entirely. Do read it."

Sunday frowned. "You can't do that. There's a reason why I was superior- so that I could take care of the House when needed."

"And you did _such_ a good job of that, didn't you?" Arthur asked. "This way, it'll be harder for the House to go to ruins because someone didn't do their job right. Also, I've altered the Keys so that they're all equally powerful, and are all equally paramount in their own domains- so don't try defeating Wednesday like you did last time, you'll lose. Plus, the Keys are more powerful now, now that there's no Architect, they need to be to defend the House. Another thing, I've decided that no Morrow Day should remain in one domain for long, so after every one thousand years, you guys will switch, with you becoming Monday, Saturday becoming Sunday, Thursday becoming Friday, and so on."

"You did _what_?" Sunday asked incredulously. Arthur could tell that this was the part that Sunday was going to have the most trouble with.

"I did what I said," Arthur said. "And I've already included it in the treaty to your Keys, so they'll switch automatically. There's _nothing_ you can do to stop it. And I'm doing it so that each domain can get a new ruler once in a while to change things, so no one domain is stuck with a permanently good or bad ruler, and because then you guys will have to start helping each other since you'll get a new domain eventually. You guys can sort out the rest of the details, like if you want your Times and such to be transferred with you or not, " Arthur said it with a 'That's that!' sort of attitude. What Arthur didn't say was that another reason to do so was so that the Days could never stick in one domain for long and make an army or something to cause trouble, as they would be rapidly transferred from place to place and unable to make a very loyal base to themselves.

"So you're mortal now?" Sunday asked after taking a good look at Arthur.

"Yes," Arthur said. "I decided to release most of the Architect's powers once I was done with making creation, which now are mainly involved in forming a barrier between the House and Nothing, and adding them to the Keys to make them powerful than ever, so that now they can even alter the Improbable Stair in their domains. I'm perfectly human. For as long as I want to be."

Sunday frowned. "So, you're just going to leave all of this behind and let us rule the House? And what does 'for as long as I want to be' mean?"

"Well, not exactly," Arthur said with a grin. "See, I noticed that while you're right in saying that you guys could rule the House, with a few small changes from me, that doesn't mean that you guys should rule the Secondary Realms, which, you should know, as Architect, I made _first_ , even before the House itself. I think that if the House is ruled democratically a bit, that means that someone from the Secondary Realms should also be a representative. And only someone from the Secondary Realms should be allowed to interfere in them, because you guys are just way too callous with life in the Secondary Realms. That's why I decided to fashion myself a new Key, and make myself the eighth Morrow Day."

Sunday blinked. "So what, you're Arthurday now?"

"No," Arthur said. "The rest of you seven can rule the seven domains of the House. I, on the other hand, have complete and absolute control over the Secondary Realms entirely, on any given day, and anything in the House that was brought over from the Secondary Realms. That means that the Piper's Children, the Raised Rats, all of your exhibits, Grim Tuesday's stolen treasures, etc. fall under my purview and will be returned to me. And as per the new Accord, none of you can enter the Improbable Stair and reach a Secondary Realm, or modify records, or go out there by any means, the Front Door or otherwise. If a Denizen needs to rule the House, it makes sense for a mortal to rule the Secondary Realms so that the interests of everyone there are taken into place. Also, my position won't rotate like it will with you guys."

"Is there an eighth Key?"

"Yes," Arthur said. "But I've modified it so that its sorcery isn't inimical."

"You can do that?" Sunday asked.

"Sure," Arthur said. "The Old Architect didn't need to, as she really didn't care about mortals, and to be honest, I think she made it inimical so that Denizens wouldn't interfere in the Secondary Realms. I plan to do whatever I wanted, so I made it so. And, it won't make me overly arrogant, or angry, stuff that the Architect thought were _good_ things to incorporate in her superior Denizens, though I really don't think so. It won't make me a Denizen either."

"But- to become a Denizen is-"

"To become a higher class of being? Yeah, I've heard that, and it really isn't that true. The Architect didn't even consider that someone who had gotten a Key wouldn't want to become an immortal Denizen, but I don't want to. My Key won't affect me," Arthur said.

"Is it really okay though to hand over something as powerful as a Key to a mortal teenager though?" Sunday muttered.

"I don't see why not?" Arthur said.

 **Five Years Into the Future, Earth Time**

Arthur had been living a pretty normal life for the past few years, and right now, his parents weren't home.

So he did what any normal seventeen year-old would do: throw a wild party.

The house was crowded, stuff was ruined, things (and hearts) were broken, viral videos were made, and all sorts of stupid stuff happened and nearly everyone was nearly high enough to give the party 'Lady Friday's Seal of Approval.'

"So," Arthur said to a rather pretty girl he had been crushing on for the last few weeks. "Nice party, huh?"

"It's great," the girl said, and sipping what was clearly not her first drink. "Do you know what I think? It would be like, totally _so_ romantic if a guy wrote his gal's name into the moon."

"Hmm," Arthur said while putting a finger inside his right pocket.

* * *

 **Several Miles Away**

A young college sophomore by the name of Brian Stertson was fidgeting around with one of the telescopes kept in the college. He was mentally cursing himself for falling behind in astronomy, or for even taking the stupid class in the first place. Here he was stuck with his professor, who was at least a thousand years old, while his friends were out, and apparently there was this really crazy party near the Penhalingon's house.

He looked at the screen as it took in the data, and couldn't believe his eyes. He rubbed them and looked at it again.

"Professor!" Brian shouted. "The moon's somehow looking bigger, and it looks like someone wrote something like, 'Caitlyn' with a huge heart around it!"

"Come on now, Brian," the professor replied, not even looking at the screen. "I know you're upset at having to stay back, but that's no excuse to come to class drunk."

 **Back to the Present**

"I'm sure I'll be super, extra responsible with the Key's powers," Arthur said.

The Seven Dials appeared behind Arthur. "Remember, those guys-" he pointed his thumb to the other Days, "will start moving soon, so tell them what I said. And no fighting in-between you guys, and remember, everything that isn't specifically your territory or part of the House belongs to me. I do plan on making a base in the House though, perhaps in the void between the Front Door and the Secondary Realms, but that'll come in several years when I come back here. Until then, I expect all of you to catalogue stolen things from the Secondary Realms and prepare them so that I can eventually have them returned to their owners."

Arthur took a deep breath, and stepped into the Seven Dials, knowing that he would come back. He then paused, and remembered to take Elephant with him as he left.

One day.

Arthur found himself in his room, and it was just as he had left it that Sunday evening to go to the House. He glanced at the Eight Key, which took the form of a watch and Arthur put it on, though he frowned and realized that though he had not made it so that it would vaporize anyone who touched it besides him, it would probably still hurt them, so that meant that he would have to hide the Key from his family somehow and make sure none of them accidentally touched it.

He looked out the window to see his mom driving into the driveway and smiled as he ran down.

For now, he was just a normal boy.

* * *

Throughout this, you may have noticed that we missed out on someone: the Piper.

The Piper was getting his troops ready to attack the House when he was informed that there was an odd object approaching the worldlet. He reached there to notice a tall, winged Denizen had appeared, unfazed by the muskets his soldiers pointed at him.

"Brother," the Piper spat. "Are you finally getting off your high throne to challenge me?"

"Hardly," Sunday said. "I just wanted to say that you're plan of conquering the House is futile."

"Says you!" the Piper retorted. "I am the Rightful Heir!"

"Uh, no you're not," Sunday replied. "The Will's already been completed, and the Rightful Heir already one. The House itself was destroyed, didn't you notice that?"

The Piper did have a memory of a colossal wave of Nothing washing over his worldlet, but since he had later appeared without anything having changed, had chalked it up to some strange sort of hallucination.

"So what now?" the Piper asked as he motioned for his soldiers to lower their muskets and his shoulders drooped in defeat.

"Well, you can have this," Sunday said and tossed the Piper a ribbon. The Piper looked at it, it said: I TRIED TO TAKE OVER THE HOUSE BY FORCE AND ALMOST SUCEEDED!

"That's all I get?" the Piper asked. "A lousy ribbon?"

"Pretty much," Sunday said.

"Was it you who threw me into the Void around eight hundred years ago?"

"No, that was Saturday, but don't bother getting angry at it," Sunday said. "The New Architect, or rather, the Eight Morrow Day pardoned her of that. You can come with me though, to the Gardens. There's a lot I'd like to discuss."

"I'd prefer to roam around the Realms rather than stay with you," the Piper reported.

"Well you can't," Sunday said. "The Realms are now the Eighth Morrow Day's property, and he has explicitly forbidden any of us from entering."

The Piper snorted. "Than I see no reason to continue to keep myself together merely to _enjoy_ your company." He then took off his mask.

Sunday's eyes widened. "NO! Seventh Key, repair the Piper! Do not let him return to Nothing!"

Sunday didn't even need to grip the Seventh Key anymore, his words were enough for it to begin its action. The Piper stood before Sunday, now fully restored.

"It is slightly hard for me to say this…" Sunday said, "But I'm sorry about letting you down. After I became Trustee, I stopped bothering about you and Tom, and about the House and general. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to be with you right now… brother."

There was a long stretch of silence, during which the Piper expected Sunday to scream 'April Fools' or something.

"Where will we all go?" the Piper asked.

"Well, if your soldiers aren't too violent, they could be accommodated in the Great Maze for now, though Sir Thursday might refuse that request," Sunday said.

"They really just want to farm," the Piper said. "And what do you mean by request? Just tell him what to do."

"It doesn't work like that anymore," Sunday said. "I suppose I could take you to the Gardens, but the beetles will not like so many creatures that look like Nithlings. Tell you what, you come to the Incomparable Gardens alone and we can ask the Eighth Morrow Day if he'll let you go out into the Secondary Realms, after all, he's apparently given Tom a permit so he might allow you to do so too, and maybe we can settle these creations of yours on some planet in the Secondary Realms where they can farm to their heart's content."

The Piper frowned. "You've mentioned an Eighth Morrow Day several times. Are you seriously telling me that this New Architect decided that it was necessary to have another one of you lunatics around?"

"Actually, he _is_ the Eighth Morrow Day," Sunday said. "I'll explain on the way to the Gardens, it is a pretty long story."

"Sure," the Piper said.

The two brothers then set out for an elevator that had appeared behind Sunday, and the Piper smiled for the first time in quite a while.

And everyone could see it, because he wasn't wearing his mask.

 **A/N: And that ends the second possible ending I thought of. Basically I knew how to write the story, but I was sure that two endings were possible, one where Arthur splits and the other where he doesn't. Having two endings is sort of like having your cake and eating it too, but I guess it's okay just this once. The endings are quite similar in what happens to Arthur, who gets to continue his mortal life in a sort of a way, but different in how they treat the other characters.**

 **Also, I do realize the endings are quite a bit different from each other, but both of them are a bit too 'they all lived happily ever after' to be seriously taken as practical endings. Hardly anyone died throughout the series, which would have probably happened in a 'normal' situation.**

 **Capricon Aquarius FOZ, nice to know you've changed your username. I'm guessing you meant you wanted a story as a sequel to Epilogue Part A? Humanoidpatronus, thanks, and while I could've made the Atlas less powerful, I didn't feel like it as I wanted the story to resemble the original storyline, or at the very least, abide by the rules of the original storyline and universe made by Garth Nix. Also, the Atlas wasn't too powerful in Arthur's hands since he didn't want to use it that much.**

 **That ends this fanfic, and thanks for reading and sticking with me all the way here. I'd love to know which ending you thought was better and why.**

 **Once again, thanks!**


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